The tale of the ninja wizard
by Anonymous4.O
Summary: HP/Naruto crossover. 12 years old Naruto discovered he is a wizard, follow him as he goes to Hogwarts and meets Harry Potter and live adventures with them. But why is he one of the very few in history that can use chakra and magic? What is he exactly?
1. Chapter 1

The tale of the ninja wizard

Chapter 1: I'm a what?

**A/N: Greetings to all that already follow me and to you who discover me with this story. I would like to precise that English is not my first language so I'm sorry for all spelling mistakes. Welcome to this crossover fanfiction of HP and Naruto, no it will not be a "guard the school" story but one where Naruto will go to Hogwarts. Before we start you have to know that this Naruto will be similar to the one of my other story ****A different version****, when the story starts he already met Kurama (the kyubi for those who didn't know) when he was four years old and became friend with him, and he trained with him so he has the same original jutsu and fighting style (I won't spoil more for those who wants to discover this in the story ^^). Oh and Sakura is not his friend in this story and still a fan girl and no, this is not a NaruSaku even though I love this couple. My OC Toyama exists but you will see that much later. Now I think I talked (more like wrote) long enough so let's start the story shall we?**

Disclaimer: Hey, guess what? I own nothing else than my imagination, a shame for me but both the HP and Naruto universe are good enough like that don't you think?

"Dialogue"

_"Thoughts"_

'Mental dialogue'

**"Kurama dialogue"**

**_"_****_Kurama thoughts"_**

It was a peaceful morning in the hidden village of Konoha, the sun was slowly rising and the villagers started to wake up for a normal day of work. Well everyone except our twelve years old blond hero, also called the demon brat, Naruto. He was currently on his way home after a normal early morning training in the forest, thanks to the early hour he didn't have to deal with a lot of insults or glares from the villager and had all the time he wanted to talk to his only friend, in his mind. As weird as it can be Naruto's only friend is the source of the villagers hate toward him, the nine tailed fox Kurama that is sealed in him. They were talking about the training Naruto did earlier as usual when they saw something not so usual waiting at Naruto's home, on the floor just in front of his door was a grey owl. And as if this wouldn't have been weird enough the owl seemed to want him to take the letter that was on its leg. After taking the letter and opening it carefully, a habit he took because the only letters he ever got were trapped, and reading it Naruto went from curious to confused before being completely pissed off. So that's how there was now an angry young Naruto going straight to the hokage manor with an owl circling above his head. When he got to the manor Naruto went without second thoughts to the hokages office despite the screams of protest of the secretary.

"We need to talk old man!" exclaimed Naruto when he busted through the door of the office, giving the hokage an interruption from a meeting with his advisors that he mentally thanked him for,

"I'm sorry Naruto but I'm in a meeting so can you…" The old ninja started with a smile but stopped when he saw the letter the boy was holding, it's crest and the owl that was sitting on his head, much to the kid displeasure, "Of course Naruto" he turned to his advisors "We will continue this conversation later, for the moment I need to speak to Naruto if you excuse us" the hokage sent them a cold glare when they tried to protest that silenced them before they got out, sending glares at Naruto who couldn't care less about it.

"So Naruto, how can I help you?" he asked with a smile,

"Some jerk put this owl in front of my door with a letter saying I'm accepted in a wizard school, seriously, how dumb does they think I am? Everyone knows that magic is just a fairy tale that parents tells their children!" he exclaimed, his voice going down on the last part, making the hokage cringe but he recomposed himself,

"Naruto, what I am going to say might seem difficult to believe but… Magic is real" there was a tense silence before Naruto's outburst,

"Yeah right, if magic exist why I haven't seen it before?" he asked, thinking he had won the argument, but…

"Maybe I will be a better choice to explain that if you don't mind" said a new voice behind Naruto, making him jump back instinctively in front of the hokage with a kunai drawn. He saw the intruder, an old man with a long purple robe, glasses the shape of a half moon, a twinkle in the eyes and with a white beard that went down to his waist. The intruder and Sarutobi smiled at Naruto who seemed ready to defend the hokage,

"You can put away your weapon Naruto, I know him. I expected to see you since he had this letter" Sarutobi said, Naruto looked between his pseudo-grandfather and the supposedly not intruder before putting back his Kunai,

"I thank you for putting your weapon away Naruto, let me present myself, I am Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore, it's a pleasure to meet you" the stranger said while extending his hand, Naruto shook it warily, he noticed that the man was stronger than his appearance let's out, but not enough for a ninja to worry, but he was sure that Albus was powerful in his own way. The hokage couldn't help but to feel a bit proud and a bit sad that Naruto seemed to analyse Dumbledore, proud because it is an important skill for a ninja but also sad because it wasn't the academy but how he was treated in his life that taught him that, unknown to him Dumbledore had similar thoughts.

"Nice to meet you too old man" Naruto said with a smile that Dumbledore, to his surprise, returned

_"__This smile… It's not forced, and he looks at me as if he's happy I'm here, apart from old man hokage nobody looked at me like that"_ Naruto thought,

'What do you think Kurama?'

**"****Trust me, listen to what they have to say"** the demon fox replied,

'Ok then' Naruto looked at Dumbledore,

"You said that you would explain the letter and why I haven't seen magic if it exist, right?"

"Of course, the reason you haven't seen magic in the elemental countries is because the use of chakra seems to negate the flow of natural magic in your bodies, meaning than extremely few people in the history of the elemental countries were able to use magic, and nobody use chakra outside your country." Naruto nodded in understanding,

"Wait, you said there were extremely few people that could use magic here in all our history, how many are we talking about, thousands? Hundreds?" asked Naruto,

"Actually you are the tenth person in the history to have this gift. Naruto, you are a wizard"

"I'm a what?" Naruto had his mouth open in shock, in all the history of this country there were only nine people with this gift before him? A wizard, him? It had to be a joke,

"So for the letter, I suppose you are the headmaster of this school" he said,

"Exactly, you will learn all about magic here, if you accept of course. Truth to be told you should have had this letter last year but my old friend right here had hidden you very well" Dumbledore said,

"Well of course, he is the hokage you know!" Naruto exclaimed, bringing a smile to the two old men but Naruto wasn't finished,

"But seriously, I have trouble believing you, it seems too unreal. I will need a proof that magic is real" Dumbledore's smile grew wider at that as he began to take his wand out,

"With pleasure, see this chair Naruto?" the whiskered boy nodded, the chair had nothing special until the old wizard pointed his wand at it, transforming it in a cloud of butterflies. Naruto was in awe, after Kurama assured him that he was not in a genjutsu, he had his answer, magic is real, and he will be able to learn it too but…

"I believe you, magic is real but I have one question left…"

"And what will that be?"

"If I accept to go to your school, will I have to quit being a ninja, to abandon my dream to be hokage one day? If this is a choice I have to do, I will choose to be a ninja you know!" Naruto exclaimed with a determined look in his eyes, making the two old men to smile at him again,

"You will still be able to be a ninja Naruto, right Hiruzen?" Dumbledore said while giving a knowing smile at the hokage,

"Of course, I will give you scrolls for you to train with so don't worry, your place as a shinobi of Konoha will be kept" the old ninja told Naruto, who seemed happier than ever at this.

"Then I accept to go to this school" he said excitedly,

"Good, for the moment we will go to buy what you will need while Sarutobi prepares those scrolls" Dumbledore said with a smile, Naruto was going excitedly to the door but turned around confused as to why the old wizard wasn't coming,

"We will not go by normal means of travels" he said before pulling his wand again and motioning Naruto to come closer, he extended his hand that Naruto took but before they can go the hokage interrupted him,

"Naruto, it would be wise to let your headband here while you're in the wizard world, you will have to hide that you are a ninja in their world, understood?" as much as Naruto wanted to protest he understood why, since both worlds have powers that the other doesn't have it will create envy and in the end a war might start. So he did as he was told with a pout on his face that he didn't managed to hide, much to the amusement of both wizard and ninja, before he got back to Dumbledore and took his hand. What happened next Naruto could only describe it as torture, the world was shrinking and spinning around them, light and shadows mixed together, he had the sensation that he was squished, there was no sound nor smells in this space and that was disturbing because of his enhanced senses he had because of the kyubi. And then it ended as suddenly as it started, they ended in an old cobblestone alley, Dumbledore slightly floating in the air before landing but not Naruto, as soon as he crashed on the ground he curled up, the sounds and the smells assaulting him, he never felt as bad as now except for the time were he was covered in blood after some villagers tried to kill him, he had to go to the hospital despite his healing abilities given by Kurama. Dumbledore looked at the sorry trembling mass that he guessed was Naruto with an apologizing look,

"I'm sorry Naruto, I forgot that the first time a person appariates is not pleasant" he said in a soft voice, they spent some time waiting for Naruto to feel better, which he did pretty quickly considering the state he was in, he analysed quickly his surroundings before asking where they were,

"We are in London, in the muggle part of it"

"What's a muggle?"

"They are non-magical person, ninjas would be considered muggles since they can't use magic, even though they are far from ordinary muggles." He answered before heading toward an old broken down shop, Naruto noticed that they seemed to be the only ones to see it so he supposed it was hidden by magic. When they entered Naruto stopped to look at his surroundings, more people with weird robes and the shop that seemed better on the inside than the outside, once he realized that Dumbledore was going on without him he ran to catch up to him in the back of the shop, in front of a brick wall. Before he could ask the old wizard had his wand out and tapped the bricks in a counter clockwise motion around a hole in the wall, the bricks started to move away from the centre revealing an alley full of people in weir dress, wizards he guessed, walking in different shops. Naruto gasped at the sight and turned around frantically, analysing his surroundings once more, shops selling clothes, animals, weird plants and objects, even brooms (thought he had no idea why they displayed brooms like that). Dumbledore watched him amused at his reaction, especially the confused look he had when he saw brooms displayed at some shops front, before talking again,

"Welcome to Diagon alley, one of our little pieces of the magical world hidden in the muggle one. There every wizard can buy everything they can need for every need they have" he exclaimed, catching Naruto's interest,

"So I will be able to buy the things on the list here?" Dumbledore nodded, "But Dumbledore-sensei, I don't have any money of your world" Naruto stated while following Dumbledore,

"And that's why we are going to Gringotts, our bank and the safest place in the wizard world, except Hogwarts" Dumbledore said with a reassuring smile, making Naruto nervous,

"But I don't have an account in this bank"

"We are going there to create you one"

"No!" Dumbledore looked at him, confused by his outburst, "I don't want my money in a bank" he exclaimed,

"But why don't you want to? I'm going to give you a decent amount of money and it will be safer in a bank" Dumbledore stated, not understanding the boy,

"Because the bank back home never gave my money back" he answered,

"Then I assure you that I will personally make sure they give you your money back, and if ever they don't then just tell me and I'll help you, I promise"

"Really?" Naruto asked, when the professor nodded he finely agreed and after a quick trip to Gringotts to deposit some money and give Naruto a new account and his discovery of goblins, they went out and Dumbledore gave Naruto a good amount of money, saying that he will come back later because of he had some work to do and that Naruto should start to buy what he will need. Naruto didn't complain about being alone to buy his stuff, it was a good opportunity to explore this place, Dumbledore also explained to him their money system so there should be no problem right? That's what he thought when he started to walk around until he saw a bushy brown haired girl crying and a black haired boy in front her who were obviously bullying her, having been bullied all his life he didn't think twice before going towards them.

"You filthy mudblood shouldn't be allowed in our community, you will only stain our purity" said the boy with an arrogant voice before a blond haired boy with blue eyes whiskered birthmarks appeared in front of him,

"I don't know what you said means but it's obviously insults, stop bullying her" he said, making the black haired boy angry, who was this guy to tell him what to do, at him, a pure blood. The girl looked up to look at the person who was helping her,

"And what will you do if I refuse?" asked the arrogant boy smugly,

"I'll arrange a meeting with your face and the ground" Naruto answered confidently, the boy in front of him had no idea that he could easily do that while keeping hidden the fact that he was a ninja. This of course infuriated the boy who tried to punch Naruto who easily blocked it before punching him in the chin, controlling his strength as to not knock him out in one punch as it might be suspicious, and used the fact that it made him unbalanced to sweep his legs that made him fall, his face hitting the floor. The black haired boy got up with some difficulty and the girl looked impressed at the fact that he took out a boy that looked tough in two moves,

"If you don't want more go away" Naruto said coldly,

"You bastard!" said the boy, humiliated in front of passer-by who stopped to see what was happening, before going away. The little crowd that gathered scattered and Naruto turned to the girl who stopped crying and had a small smile on her face,

"Are you alright?" he asked, the girl nodded, "I'm Uzumaki Naruto, and you?"

"Hermione Granger, thanks for your help" she answered,

"No need to thank me it's normal to help in these situations" he said casually "Are you alone?"

"No my parents are in the book shop" she answered

"Oh, so it's your first year, like me!" he said excitedly, making Hermione's smile grow larger,

"You're getting to Hogwarts too this year?"

"You bet, I only learned that magic exist today thought" Hermione was shocked at that,

"But the letter should have arrived in the beginning of July, the terms starts in two weeks, how is it possible?"

"Well I guess the owl had some troubles to find me" he answered nervously "By the way what did this guy meant when he called you mudblood, if you don't mind me asking?"

"It's ok, a wizard can come if the two parents are wizards, what he called pure blood, if one of the parents is a wizard or a witch, that he would call a half blood and finely a wizard can be from two muggles with no magical backgrounds, it's what he called a mudblood. But mudblood is a horrible insult to all witches and wizards, the official term is muggle born witch or wizard. It's what I am, a muggle born" she explained, but to her surprise Naruto seemed confused by her explanation, a thing that never happened before,

"I don't understand… How is that important? I mean a witch will still be a witch and a wizard a wizard no matter where they come from right?"

"Most wizards think this way but some thinks that pure bloods should be the only ones to access to the wizarding schools, they call wizards that live with a muggle blood traitor and thinks that muggle born should not be allowed to learn magic"

"Basically a bunch of bastards" Naruto simply said, making Hermione laugh at how he resumed the situation,

"By the way, where are your parents?" she noticed the sadness in his eyes when she asked,

"I don't have any, old man Dumbledore came to bring me here" she nearly fell over at that,

"Dumbledore brought you here?" she asked in disbelief,

"Yeah, why is this so shocking?" he asked, after a long detailed explanation of who Dumbledore was, Naruto had even more respect for him. When she finished, he told her that he should get buy what was on his list only to have Hermione dragging him towards the library, saying that she just started to buy her stuff and that her parents wouldn't mind if he came with them. Naruto was nervous upon meeting her parents because of how he was treated in the village but discovered that they were really kind, he bought his books plus one other on magical creatures because he was interested in the subject, much to Hermione amusement because of his birthmark whiskers that gave him an animalistic appearance. They went to buy potions ingredients, a pewter cauldron and other things they needed, Naruto never had that much fun in his life and couldn't help but to consider Hermione a friend.

They went in the animal shop to by a familiar, Naruto felt uneasy when he saw all the caged animals but went in, there were owls, cats, frogs, rats and tons of other birds, one in particular caught his interest, it was a beautiful bright red bird, when it saw him the bird chirped and spread its wings. When Naruto approached and put a finger through the cage the bird pushed its head on it to, wanting to be stroked, a wish he happily fulfilled. Naruto jumped a bit when he heard a voice behind him

"Well this is unusual" he turned around to see the vendor,

"What's unusual?" the vendor pointed to the bird Naruto was still stroking,

"This, usually she ignores anybody that comes in the shop, she is a phoenix and like all of her kind she is extremely proud and will only serve those with a pure and heroic heart"

"She must have made a mistake" but the phoenix chirped in protest as if she understood everything,

"Be careful because they are extremely intelligent creatures and I don't think she will let you say otherwise" he said with a slight chuckle,

"Are you going to buy her? Normally it will be very expensive but since you're a kid and I doubt that she will choose somebody for a few hundreds of years I'll sell her to you for 15 galleons"

"I'd love to buy her" Naruto exclaimed without hesitation, after he paid the vendor was going to take a cage but Naruto stopped him,

"The cage won't be necessary"

"You're sure?" Naruto nodded,

"Ok then, while we are waiting for your friend other there to find her happiness let me tell you a few things about phoenixes." the vendor said to Naruto while his new phoenix went on his shoulder, making him smile, "They are extremely loyal creatures that will never betray their master, when they die they burn themselves to be reborn from the ashes, their tears have healing powers that no wounds or poisons can resist and they can carry heavy loads that exceeds the strength of ten strong men and still be able to fly correctly." Naruto looked at his new companion on his shoulder in awe, such a beautiful and incredible creature had chosen him for master? It was unbelievable but yet, he though the same thing about magic this morning so he will just have to accept all of it, even if it is so surprising. A few moments later Hermione and her parents came back with to take the vendor and they soon got out, Naruto with his phoenix and Hermione with a ginger coloured cat she called Crookshanks, they then made their way to Olivander's wand shop.

"So Naruto, what are going to name your phoenix?" Naruto though for a moment before looking at said bird,

"How do you like Amaterasu?" the phoenix chirped happily, content of the name but Mr Granger, who was leading the way, turned around curious,

"Does it mean something in Japanese?"

"Yes, Amaterasu is the name of a goddess of the sun" he said while petting Amaterasu. They talked for a short while after that before finding the shop, when they got in they saw that the shop was slightly dusty and filled with boxes and an old man at the desk.

"Good afternoon" the man said as he stands up, showing wide pale eyes shining like moons and that reminded Naruto of a certain girl who stalked him back at Konoha, "I suppose you are coming for a wand?"

_"__Well obviously"_ Naruto thought but he only nodded along with Hermione,

"As you probably guessed I am Olivander"

"I'm Uzumaki Naruto"

"Hermione Granger"

"Pleased to meet you young wizards" Olivander said while shaking their hands, "Well then, let's start finding you your wand, what is your wands hand?" he asked,

"My what?" Naruto asked

"Your righting hand" explained Hermione, "I'm right handed" she answered

"Me too" said Naruto before Olivander grabbed a box, seemingly at random, before presenting it to Hermione,

"Lady's first, try this one, beechwood and dragon heartstring, nine inches. Give it a wave" nothing happened,

"No, not this one, maybe…" Olivander gave her another wand, nothing happened, after several wands and a few pots destroyed he came back with another wand,

"Vine wood, heartstring core, ten and a half inches" this time when Hermione took the wand there was a soft gush of wind, "Ah, it seems like we found your wand at last, it will be seven galleons" Olivander said, her parents paid the wand and the old man turned toward Naruto, "Now let's see which wand will be yours Mr Uzumaki"

[Forty five minutes later]

Naruto and Olivander had their head on the desk, crying anime style while Amaterasu sweat dropped, they were alone since after fifteen minutes where Olivander passed more and more wands to Naruto and the shop furniture breaking, the Granger's decided that it was safer to wait for Naruto at the clothes shop.

"Why is it so difficult to find a wand that accept me" Naruto whined, in the time he spent with Olivander he learned that it was the wand that choose the wizard and not the other way round but they used nearly all the type of wands the shop had. Olivander suddenly went up, surprising Naruto,

"Maybe…" he said before going at the back of the shop, moving a piece of the wall to reveal a safe in which he took a wand box that was tightly sealed, he opened it carefully and took the wand in it, which was covered in a cloth. Naruto was confused of all the precautions Olivander took when he presented him the wand, it was a beautiful wand that went in a swirl from the handle, brown that breathed of life mixed perfectly with an deep black that reminded the darkness of death, giving the wand an ethereal aspect. Olivander motioned for him to take it, a mixed of fear and hope in his eyes, when Naruto grabbed the wand he felt as if warmth went through his body, touching his soul itself and a golden and dark light surrounded Naruto in a spiral.

"Very interesting indeed…" said Olivander, Naruto looked at him puzzled,

"What is?" he asked,

"You see Mr Uzumaki, this wand was created in ancient times and never found its wizard. It was passed down from maker of wands to another along with what it was composed it, eleven inches, wood from the tree of life itself and for core the sessho-seki, also called the stone of killing, the stone of death. The mix of life and death make this wand the most powerful one in the world, so powerful that once it was created no one could destroy it no matter the means they used."

"Why would they want to destroy a wand they created?"

"Because, Mr Uzumaki, before you all of those who grasped this wand ended drained of their forces, some were brought to an inch from death and the only reason they lived is from the power of the tree of life that reside in this wand" Naruto was shocked,

"And you made me try it?" he exclaimed, "What if it didn't choose me?"

"Then I would have taken it away from you at the first sign of rejection from the wand" Naruto looked at his wand, "It is not clear why a wand choose a wizard Mr Uzumaki, but I am sure of one thing, you will do great things in the future, good or bad I do not know, but great" Olivander said while Naruto was still recovering from what he learned, "It seem that we finely found you your wand, it will be seven galleons" Naruto paid and made his way toward Madame Malkin's shop with Amaterasu who looked at him worriedly,

**"****Seems like your wand is as troublesome as the master it chose"** said the dark voice of Kurama,

'Oh come on, I'm not bringing people at an inch from death just by touching them'

**"****When listening to the villagers at Konoha it doesn't seems like it"**

'It's… true. They treat me like a monster, like they would treat you' stated Naruto

**"****But you know, there was once a seven years old kid who told me that it was better to be a monster than a foul that treat badly those they do not understand and they call monsters. I think you could take a bit from him"**

'Yeah, I think I know him, but he was only able to discover that because of a kind giant fox who _was_ consumed by hate that was sealed in him'

**"****Shut up dam brat!"**

'But he still doesn't know how to take compliments though' he added while laughing, only to stop when he saw a confused Hermione looking at him with worry. In his mental conversation he didn't realised he arrived at Madame Malkin's shop,

"Are you all right?" asked Hermione, making Naruto blush in embarrassment, he looked at the floor while rubbing the back of his head,

"Yeah, just remembered something funny I saw" there was an awkward silence before a voice spoke

"Hogwarts, dear?" Naruto turned to the owner of the voice, a squat, smiling woman and nodded. Before he followed her he was stopped by Hermione,

"I'm sorry Naruto but I have to go, we don't live exactly near so… I'll see you in two weeks then" she said, a bit unsure,

"Well of course, we're going to the same school you know" Naruto exclaimed with a big smile that made Hermione blush a bit, they said a quick goodbye before Naruto went to buy his clothes. He was paying Madame Malkin, who he discovered as a very kind woman, when Dumbledore came back they went back in Konoha the same way they came, much to Naruto's displeasure.

Sarutobi was working on his never ending paper work, he hoped Naruto had a better day than him, with the usual paper work he also had to deal with his advisors and the council who wanted to raise the shop prices for Naruto, again, before the hokage told them that as a leaf ninja he was now one of the protectors of the village and should have the same prices than anybody else, he still had to threaten them when they tried to protest though. He was in his thoughts when he felt a soft gust of wind, he looked up only to have his jaw drop at the sight, Naruto was dressed in a black robe, white shirt, jeans and his usual black combat boots. The change was radical but he had to admit he looked better than in his usual all orange attire but what attracted his attention was the beautiful red bird on his shoulder and the bright smile on his face, a real smile he saw too rarely on the boy's face.

"I suppose that you bought everything you need for school" the old ninja said with a smile, Naruto nodded excitedly, "Listen Naruto… it will be better if you leave all your stuff here until you have to go in two weeks" the hokage said, and to his surprise Naruto didn't protest but only asked for his headband back. When he put back his headband back he told his bird to wait here until he can go to Hogwarts and left, Sarutobi was stunned by that, he expected Naruto to protest loudly, especially for having to leave his pet here.

Naruto went back to his home and went straight to his bed, lying down with a sight. In two weeks he will have to say goodbye to this village, his place in a team will be taken by somebody else and he was sure villagers will throw parties when they'll learn that he was abroad studying. But on the other hand he was going to a school to learn magic, a school far away where no one knows he is the container of a great beast and probably don't even know what is a great beast except Dumbledore, he will be able to make some friends, thing that was impossible for him here. He couldn't wait for the day of departure to come.

**A/N: Whew, finished at last. So, what do you think of this chapter? I want to precise that I know the subject is not knew and there are several stories like that and that there are similarities with them. Well what can I say? It was the story that came in my head when I started writing so sorry if it bothers you ^^. For Naruto's wand I had trouble and looked for an unique core that will not be something from the Kyubi because I didn't have something really special planned with him, not that they won't be but I wanted something else for Naruto that will touch magic too. After a while I found the stone for the core, it's called the killing stone but I will change its story for the purpose of the story, same with the tree of life, the reason I took this stone is because of the killing on touch thing and the fact it came from Japanese mythology, it made a perfect match with the tree of life in my opinion. Also, yes, it will be a Naruto/Hermione pairing so I apologise for those who don't like this pairing. Well then, I really hope you enjoyed and see you next chapter :)**


	2. Chapter 2

The tale of the ninja wizard

Chapter 2: Arrival at Hogwarts

**A/N: Hey guys I'm back (Yeah I will say that a lot), this chapter kept bugging me so I had to write it. I will give a cookie for every brave soul who knows what this chapter is about, what? The title already said it? Damn. Well then, I don't have much to say more so let's go to the story.**

Disclaimer: I own no wizards or ninjas, I'm not a slaver and it would be weird (yep, I'm running out of stupid things to say).

"Dialogue"

_"Thoughts"_

'Mental dialogue'

**"Kurama dialogue"**

**_"_****_Kurama thoughts"_**

"**_Spells_**"

Naruto woke up extra early, it was _the_ day and he had a lot to do before he went to Hogwarts so first, his morning training with the help of Kurama, next eating at Ichiraku with Iruka for the last time for a few months, then get his stuff together which went quickly since he didn't have much, just a few pair of clothes and the scrolls the hokage prepared for him. He went to the hokage's manor and what he saw there nothing in the world could have had prepared him for that, when he went in the old ninja office he saw him trying to strangle himself with a black piece of fabric over a black uniform he wore.

"What the hell are you wearing old man?" the hokage turned to him with a smile,

"This, Naruto, is some clothes that the people wear where we are going. Dumbledore send some for you too so go get changed" he didn't need to say it twice as Naruto immediately went to see his new clothes, after all it wasn't often he had presents, more like extremely rare. He opened his brand new trunk that were apparently part of his present and saw his clothes, a white T-shirt, blue jeans and a black sweat-shirt with a hood. After he quickly changed his clothes the hokage reminded him that he should hide the fact that he is a ninja in the wizard world and did a check-up of his belongings to see if he hadn't forgotten anything before he brought Naruto's phoenix in the office. Naruto an Amaterasu were in the middle of their reunion when a beautiful silver pocket watch with a fox engraving on it appeared in a small gust of wind,

"Naruto, we don't have much time left, gather your stuff and at my signal grab this watch" Sarutobi explained, knowing that there wasn't much time left before the portkey was activated. Naruto obeyed and kept his hand just above the pocket watch, looking in the eyes of the hokage. The moment to take the watch came and Naruto was brought again in a strange _world_, they were spinning in the air while the world spin in the opposite way, it was a different sensation than what Dumbledore called appariating and not as horrible, there were still smells and sounds even if they mixed weirdly. When it stopped Hiruzen floated lightly before landing while Naruto landed less gracefully but managed to keep his footing, as promised by Dumbledore, Hiruzen found the place deserted of people.

"So Naruto, what platform do we have to go to?" he asked the blond ninja, wizard and prankster,

"Hum, platform nine and three-quarters" he answered, but when they looked they found platform nine and ten, but not nine and three-quarters, Naruto started to panic when he saw on the pocket watch, that he kept to give back to Dumbledore, that the train was going to leave soon. Hiruzen thought that it was a joke of his old friend and that he would appear with his usual smile and twinkle in the eyes until he saw a black haired boy going through the wall between platform nine and ten, quickly followed by a red head boy. He motioned to Naruto to follow him before going toward a woman who he guessed was the mother of the red head he just saw,

"Excuse us, but is this the way to platform nine and three-quarters? This boy is going for his first year so we are a bit lost" explained Hiruzen, the woman smiled at Naruto,

"Well it is a pleasure to help you, to find the platform just walk straight in the wall. My name is Molly weasley and she is Ginny, she will go to Hogwarts next year" the woman said, presenting a girl who tried to hide herself under Naruto's gaze and bright smile.

"I'm Hiruzen Sarutobi and this boy is Naruto Uzumaki, thank you for your help, we should get going before the train leaves without him" the hokage thanked but Ginny raised an eyebrow in confusion,

"You are not part of his family? You have different names" she stated but immediately regretted it when she saw the look on their face,

"It's a long story but in short, I don't have any parents and the old man is bringing me today" Naruto answered with a slightly strained smile, making Ginny regret what she said even more,

"Sorry…"

"Don't be, it's normal you would ask. Let's go then" he answered cheerfully before going through the wall, followed by Hiruzen. Naruto froze a bit at the sight of the train, it was the first time he would ride something like that and was a bit impressed by it. Hiruzen broke him from his trance a helped him putting his baggage away before they had to say goodbye, which was harder than what they thought it would. Now Naruto was left with the difficult quest of finding a place to sit down, he never expected this to be so hard, every compartment so far were full or the people were waiting for their friend, the weird thing was that many girls blushed or giggled when he passed, a thing that never happened in Konoha and he wondered why the witches had those type of reaction around him. He was thinking that he will spent his travel trying to find a place when he saw a compartment with only two boys, a dark haired and green eyes behind glasses boy and a red hair with blue eyes and freckles.

"Can I come in? All the other compartments are full" the two boys turned to look at the owner of the voice, a blond haired boy with bright blue eyes in blue jeans and a black sweat-shirt with the hood down and open, revealing a white T-shirt that didn't conceal the muscular body of the boy. The boy also had strange birthmarks on his cheeks that were shaped like whiskers but oddly, they suited him.

"Of course" answered the black haired boy, Naruto had a bright smile on his face, as he sit down he noticed a lightning shaped scar on the green eyed boys forehead,

"I'm Naruto Uzumaki by the way"

"Ron Weasley"

"Harry Potter" now Harry was expecting the boy to recognize him like Ron but Naruto just asked,

"How did you get that scar?" Ron was staring at him as if he had a second head,

"Didn't you hear him? It's Harry Potter" he exclaimed,

"Yeah I heard his name, but how is it supposed to tell me how he got that scar?"

"You… Don't know who I am?" Harry sighted in relief, "Don't worry about it, I didn't know how I got this scar until I discovered magic recently, and apparently I'm famous…" he said, Ron then explained what he knew of Harry's story, Harry looked embarrassed that somebody knew his story better than him and Naruto saw that he would have traded his fame with his parents any time, he knew that feeling very well and immediately took a liking to him and Ron.

"Well you know how I got my scar, and you, why do you have those? They look like whiskers" Harry said, Naruto just smiled,

"No idea, as weird as it may sound I was born like that. I never knew my parents neither and heard about magic for the first time two weeks ago"

"No way!" exclaimed Ron. They talked for a while and brought tons of sweets that Harry and Naruto never heard of and were happy to discover, in them was all flavors sweets and Naruto was lucky enough to not have anything horrible and chocolate frogs that escaped Harry but didn't pass Naruto and his reflexes that impressed Ron and Harry.

"Hey I learned a spell that is supposed to turn my rat yellow, want to see?" asked Ron, Naruto and Harry nodded excitedly, eager to see some magic, Ron raised his wand when the door of their compartment opened a bushy brown haired girl Naruto knew well enough.

"It's good to see you again Hermione" he said with a smile that Hermione shared when she saw him,

"Good to see you too, have you guys seen a toad, a boy named Neville lost it" they shook their head when she noticed that Ron's wand was out, "You're doing magic? Let's see it then" Ron was taken aback,

"Er, all right" he muttered, "Sunshine, daisies, butter mellow, turn this stupid fat rat yellow" nothing happened,

"Are you sure that's really a spell? Well it's not very good is it, of course I've only done simple ones myself but they all worked for me" Naruto looked at her,

"Don't be mean Hermione, we are all going to Hogwarts to learn right? Plus I'm sure you're the only one who learned by heart all the books we had to get" he said, Ron looked at him in confusion,

"How do you know she did that?"

"Because I told him I would" she answered, "I'm Hermione Granger by the way, and you?"

"Ron Weasley" he said with his mouth full and Hermione couldn't stop the slightly disgusted look it gave her,

"Harry Potter" she looked in shock,

"Are you really? I read all about you and how you-know-who couldn't kill you"

"Yeah, people seem to know more about my life than myself" he answered a bit annoyed by this,

"Sorry I didn't mean to… Well you should get changed, I expect we will be arriving soon" she said, "And Naruto" she liked her thumb before rubbing it on the corner of his lips, "you've got chocolate here" she said as Naruto stared at her in shock, she left quickly when she realized what she did, giving them a "See you later" before she disappeared in the corridors. Naruto blushed crimson red when she left, making Ron and Harry laugh at him,

"Please don't say a word about that, guys" he pleaded, they agreed after several minutes of laughing.

When they got out of the train, Harry led them in front of a giant of a man, Ron couldn't suppress his surprise and Naruto understood why. This man, who he learned was called Hagrid, brought the first years to a lake where boats were waiting for them, they had to go in groups of four. The ones on the boat were Harry, Ron, Naruto and Hermione who sit next to him, bringing a small blush on their faces after what happened in the train. Everybody were talking excitedly about what they would learn or about the magical world in general for those who wasn't raised in it until they saw what must be the most beautiful castle they ever saw, the full moon shined over it and making it look as if it was out of a fairy tale. Naruto's mouth fell in shock, a castle is a school? And they will live in it? Not possible he would have said, but that was also what he thought about magic so he decided that impossible doesn't have any meaning. When they arrived in the castle they were brought in front of two huge doors where an old woman wearing a green robe and a witch hat was waiting for them.

"Welcome to Hogwarts" she said, her voice echoing through the halls, assuring that everyone could hear her, "Now in a few moments you will pass these doors to be sorted in different houses," Naruto looked at Harry, Ron and Hermione, hoping they won't be separated, "they are Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw and Slytherin, now while you are here your houses will be like your family," Naruto smile at that, a family, the most simple thing in the world, that everyone think is a given and that he never had, "your success will win your houses points, but any rule breaking and points will be taken from your house, the house with the most points at the end of the year will be attributed the house cup, a great honor." She was going to continue when she was interrupted by a shout of "Trevor" and a slightly round brown haired boy rushing to catch his frog, the boy excused himself under the hard gaze of the woman, "The sorting ceremony will begin shortly" she said.

All the first years were talking about what the sorting ceremony would be like and if they would be tested, bringing stress to some of them. Naruto was talking to Harry and Ron, Hermione went to talk to girls she met in the train, when they were interrupted by a voice,

"So it's true, what they said in the train, Harry Potter came to Hogwarts" everybody went silent as the three friends turned to the one who spoke, a boy with pale, white blond hair flanked by bigger boys their age, "this is Crabbe and Goyle" he said pointing to the boys flaking him, "And I'm Malfoy, Draco Malfoy" he announced as if they should be impressed by his name, Ron suppressed a chuckle by coughing, Malfoy looked at him with disdain, "You think my name is funny? No need to ask you yours, red hair, second hand clothes and freckles on your face, you must be a Weasley" Ron looked at the ground, humiliated and Naruto had to use a good amount of self-control to not knock this guy out for insulting his friend before Draco turned to Harry, "You will soon find out that some wizarding families are better than others, you don't want to hang out with the wrong sort, I can help you with that" he said while extending his hand, showing to Harry with who he wanted to hang out and that was the red hair and the blond whiskered wizards next to him.

"I think I can decide who the wrong sort is myself" answered Harry, Draco paled a bit more and seemed ready to say something but was interrupted by the woman in green coming back,

"Follow me" was all she said and follow her they did, straight to an enormous hall, the first years looked around in awe, four _really_ long tables were in it, each of them with a lot of teenagers of different ages at them. But what took Naruto's attention was the ceiling, or the seemingly lack of it, he could see the stars clearly, bringing a smile on his face, he always loved to look at the stars to relax after a hard day, so he looked at them very often in the village. He heard Hermione explain to somebody that the ceiling was enchanted to look like that but he didn't really pay much attention on it as he saw the old, green robe wearing woman with an old hat next to her. He nearly fell over when the hat started to sing but quickly got over it, after all everything seemed possible with magic. When the song ended he wondered in which house he will be, Ravenclaw was out of the picture for obvious reasons, even if it hurt a bit to admit it, it leaved him with the three remaining houses. The old woman started saying names and the hat chose them houses, Ron and Hermione went in Gryffindor, there were a big silence when Harry's name came and after a while the hat put him in Gryffindor, now he really wanted to be in there.

"Naruto Uzumaki" she called at last, he was the last one to go so he had the same attention than Harry, not stressful at all. He sits down and the old woman put the hat on his head,

"Ah, another difficult one" said a voice in his head, he wasn't startled this time, seeing how the others reacted every time the hat was placed on their head he expected something like this to happen.

'Can you hear me?'

"Why, yes of course. Yes very interesting, I sense ambition, a hard working spirit bravery and a tremendous power within you and… Wait what is that?" the hat asked, Naruto's eyes widened as he realized he probably found Kurama in him,

'Don't mind him, he's somebody sealed in me, not me' the choosing hat was confused about the calm reaction of Naruto, as if having a beast this powerful inside him was nothing really important but didn't say anything, he knew he shouldn't have gone too deep in the boys mind.

"Well I think I know where to put you in… Gryffindor!" he yelled the last part, the students applauded as Naruto went to sit near Harry and Ron. Everybody talked happily for a while until Dumbledore asked for silence, which he got nearly immediately.

"First of all I would like to welcome our new students at Hogwarts and hope you will all become great wizards and withes. I also have a few start-of-term notices I wish to announce, first years please note that the dark forest is strictly forbidden to all students, also our caretaker, Mr. Filch, also asked to remind you that magic should not be used between classes in the corridors. Finely I must tell that this year the third-floor corridor on the right-hand side is out of bound to everyone who does not wish to die a very painful death" Naruto smiled, already planning to go in the dark forest to find a place to train his ninja skills, and Dumbledore must have his reason to forbid the third-floor corridor so he will listen to his warning. He heard a few people laugh at the last warning, Harry a part of them before he realized he was one of the few who did and asked if he was serious, their prefect, Percy Weasley, answered that he was but that was weird because he didn't even tell the prefects why. The questions everybody had died as soon as Dumbledore started the feast, Harry never had the right to eat all he wanted with the Dursleys but stopped digging in the food when he saw the awed look Naruto had on his face,

"What's wrong Naruto?" he asked, catching the attention of the people around them,

"I never saw that much food…" he muttered, the others looked at him strangely, he realized what he said and added quickly "I mean that much different food, I came from an Asian country" he laughed nervously while rubbing the back of his head before he took loads of different foods, the others went back to their plates without thinking much about it apart from Harry, Ron and Hermione but they didn't as anything.

**"****Well that was a close one"** Kurama said,

'Yep that was, I should be more careful about what I say about my past or I'm going to reveal I'm a ninja, and that would be bad'

**"****Especially around this girl you met before, she seems smart and will take any bits of information that she can about you"** He warned,

'I know that it will be difficult but I promised old man hokage and Dumbledore that I'll keep the secret so I'll do my best'

**"****On another note that is a hell lot of food, just who does it?"**

'No idea but I will need to thank them if I find them because it's really delicious, a shame they don't have ramen thought' he said before he talked to the students around him, the conversation turned quickly to families,

"I'm half and half, my dad's a muggle, mom's a witch, quite a nasty shock when she told him" a guy named Seamus said and the others laughed, Neville told them that he lived with his grandma and that his great-uncle tried to bring some magic out of him in several ways that made them laugh,

"What about you Naruto?" asked Seamus,

"Oh my life is not that interesting, I nether knew my parents and lived in an orphanage until I could leave to live alone and I only learned that magic exist two weeks ago" he said casually, shocking the others,

"Wait, you live alone?" asked Ron,

"Yeah, where I come from if you are an orphan, at a certain age you can choose if you want to stay in the orphanage or live alone, but I'm still taken care off so don't worry" he answered with a smile, but Hermione was sure it wasn't a real one, she didn't know why thought.

Before anyone could ask anything else a ghost came out of the table, scaring the life out of Naruto as other ghosts came out from the floor and walls.

"Hello, how are you? Welcome to Gryffindor" the ghost said,

"Hello sir Nicholas, had a nice summer?" Percy asked,

"Dismal, once again my request to join the headless hunt has been denied"

"Hey I heard about you!" Ron exclaimed, "You're nearly headless Nick"

"I would prefer you call me sir Nicholas if you don't mind" responded Nicholas, irritated by Ron's comment,

"Wait, how can you be nearly headless?" Hermione asked, Naruto looked slowly at the ghost, shivering a bit, the ghost seemed annoyed by the turn the conversation took,

"Like this" he said while pulling his head on the side, there was still a tiny part of his head attached to his body, obviously the one who wanted to behead him didn't do it properly. Everyone was disgusted by the wound except Naruto, which didn't go unnoticed by Nicholas,

"What an interesting boy" he said, pointing at Naruto, "You are scared of a ghost but you don't react to my wound" everyone looked at Naruto again and he felt uncomfortable as he tried to find an excuse,

"Well I'm more afraid of ghost I can't touch than wounds that can be fixed" he said sheepishly, the others seemed to buy that excuse since they returned to eat after they talked a bit with Nicholas before he went to see other students. After the feast the prefects led them to the dormitories, they stopped in front of the portrait of a fat woman wearing a pink silk dress,

"Password?" she asked,

"Caput Draconis" Percy said loud enough for everyone to hear and the portrait swung forward to reveal a round hall in the wall, they went in to see the Gryffindor common room. The prefect led the boys in their dormitory after directing the girls to theirs. Naruto entered and saw that their luggage has been placed next to their bed, he saw Amaterasu on his bed near the window, he went over her to pet her before preparing to go to bed. After he was in his pajamas (plain orange ones that was in the suitcase Dumbledore bought him) he looked at the silver pocket watch, wondering when he would have the time to give it back to Dumbledore but these thoughts were quickly replaced by thoughts of where he was, him, the demon brat that only a few in the village recognized as Naruto, he was going to learn magic in a castle. He considered this a blessing since no one knew who he was or that he has the powerful nine tailed fox inside him, the fact he already had friends was for him the proof that his life will get better. Well, if he manage to keep his identity secret, and he still have to find a place where he could do ninja training, but he will deal with it the next day, after all tomorrow will be his first day learning magic and he couldn't wait to start.

**A/N: Yay, I finished this chapter! From this point I will try to do some research on spells and potions to see what I will use in the story, and if you have any idea of spells and potions yourself that you would like to see in this story you can say it in a review or in a private message, if you want to of course, and I will really appreciate your help and participation in this story. Hope you enjoyed and see you next chapter ^^**


	3. Chapter 3

The tale of the ninja wizard

Chapter 3: First lessons

**A/N: Hey guys I'm back again! First I would like to thank Fahad for his suggestions and I'm going to answer his review: I will keep the Hermione/Naruto couple but Hermione might become slightly out of character (it's hard to stick to the original when you are writing) and I thought it will be a good pairing for a crossover but I understand your point of view, but since my Naruto is a bit OOC himself… well I'm sure you know what I mean. I will not bring other characters from Naruto's universe as wizards, the reason is that Naruto is the tenth person in all ****_History_**** to be able to use magic and chakra so bringing other ninja who just happen to be able to use magic too when it's supposed to be extremely rare will be a problem and incoherent with my story later on (I mean, only ten people, including Naruto, with this gift in History. It will be weird that they appear at the same time don't you think so?), I will bring ninjas in Hogwarts but for different reasons. And lastly Naruto was never a dropout in my point of view but he is not a genius either, he will be a good student but only because he worked for it. And don't worry, Naruto will not outshine Harry in his story, he will help him as Ron and Hermione does but Harry will help Naruto for his own story (the one I will create for him). Now that I clarified this point I want to thank everybody for your reviews and support, you're the best. Now then, let's go to the story!**

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or Harry Potter universes, but I own this crossover thought.

"Dialogue"

_"Thoughts"_

'Mental dialogue'

**"Kurama dialogue"**

**_"_****_Kurama thoughts"_**

"**_Spells_**"

Naruto woke up the next morning to see he was the first one awake, he looked around to see Amaterasu sleeping on his nightstand next to the pocket watch and he smiled, it wasn't a dream, he was in a castle to learn magic. But first thing first, morning training with Kurama was his priority so he dressed himself with his orange ninja outfit. While he was doing so Amaterasu woke up and went on his shoulder before he sneaked out of his dormitory. He was now wandering in the dark forest to find a spot for training but every time he found a clearing it was full of ingredients that he was pretty sure could be used for potions, so people might come here to gather some, or there were a lot of wildlife in it and he didn't want to disturb it. After a while he gave up and stated to read a scroll about chakra control the hokage gave him, he was practicing how to walk on a tree but had trouble in doing so,

"God dammit, why is it so hard?" he exclaimed to no one in particular as Amaterasu looked at him from a branch, the goal Naruto tried to achieved,

**"****Calm down kit, you have a lot of chakra so of course it will be difficult to control it. Try to put a bit less in your feet and imagine yourself walking on the tree, the image is important for the first times."** Kurama explained him,

'I know this but it's easier to say that I have to control my chakra to stick on the tree than doing it!' Kurama sighted,

**"****The angrier you get, the harder it will be for you to concentrate so let's stop. You'll continue tomorrow, and you did get half way to the top so it won't be long before you pull it off"**

'Yeah you're right. Thanks Kurama' Naruto answered before he called Amaterasu and went back toward the castle. It was still early but teachers were awake along with the paintings and ghost started to wander around so it was harder for Naruto to go back to his dormitory, and very stressful since he was afraid of ghost and nearly got himself caught by a few of them, especially a poltergeist, Peeves. Now normally Naruto would be happy to encounter another prankster but since he was a ghost and he tried to sneak back in his dormitory it proved to be very difficult, Peeves being known to be the worst guy/ghost to meet when you try to be discreet. Somehow Naruto and Amaterasu managed to get back in their room despite one of them wearing a full bright orange outfit and the other being a bright red phoenix and they were back before anybody got up so Naruto quickly changed into the Hogwarts uniform and hid the scroll. He went in the common room and waited for his friends to come out to get breakfast by reading the book he bought on magical creatures, he read the chapter on phoenixes and noticed that Amaterasu didn't have golden feathers yet, a sign she wasn't an adult the book explained, he read more of the characteristics of phoenixes but found out that he already knew most of them. He was going to read about another magical creature but stopped when he felt someone coming toward him, he turned around to see Harry and Ron coming toward him as several students made their way toward the great hall,

"What are you reading?" Harry asked,

"Information on phoenixes but I knew most of them when the animal vendor told me about mine" he answered, making Ron look at him in shock,

"You've got a phoenix?" Naruto nodded,

"Yeah, I called her Amaterasu"

"But they are very rare and nearly impossible to tame" Ron said, Harry looked impressed after he heard that,

"Well it's more like she chose me in fact. But let's talk about that as we eat, and I'm excited about starting the lessons too" he said excitedly while going toward the great hall, Ron and Harry following quickly after him.

The first lessons in magic weren't exactly how Naruto imagined they would be but he was too excited to learn about magic to care. Of course he found boring that all they started to do were taking notes but he knew they had to do it before practical training as technical knowledge was important in magic. So far he enjoyed his lessons, herbology was taught by a dumpy little witch called professor Sprout that Naruto immediately took a liking to. Transfiguration was boring and taught by the green robe wearing old woman who he learned was called professor McGonagall, boring because they were only taking notes but the teacher turned her desk into a pig and back so he wasn't complaining. Charm class was also fun and the short teacher was also nice, thought they started by theory there too. It was now time for one of the lessons he had be the more interested in, potion. Now he knew that there will be loads of theory in this subject too, and the fact that they had the lessons with the Slytherins wasn't great but he figured that potions will be so useful in his ninja career that he didn't care. Well that is until the lesson started, the teacher, professor Snape and head of Slytherin, started by taking the register but pause at Harry's name but not in a pleasant way. He then started a presentation of his subject about how potions can ensnare the senses, bewitch the mind and even put a stop to death and that rose Naruto's interest enough for him to ignore the fact he insulted the entire class and apparently decided to favour Malfoy. But Naruto didn't ignore the fact that Snape was insulting Harry who was just taking notes of what he said, he ask questions that nobody in the class could answer, well except for Hermione apparently,

"Potter" he said, "What would I get if I added powdered root of asphodel to an infusion of wormwood" of course Hermione immediately raised her hand but was superbly ignored by Snape who seemed focused on making fun of Harry and that annoyed Naruto,

"I don't know" Harry answered,

"It seems fame isn't everything"

_"__So that's why focus on Harry? It's not his fault god dammit!"_ Naruto thought, Snape asked two more questions to Harry and again the only one who seemed able to answer was Hermione but he ignored her, Naruto tensed up even more, he held the side of his desk and nearly destroyed it as he tensed up but barely managed to control himself,

"I don't know sir" Harry answered the last question, "I think Hermione does, though, why don't you try her" he said, a few laughed and Naruto smiled at how his friend defended himself, until…

"Sit down foolish girl" the teacher snapped and that was the last draw for Naruto to snap,

"That's unfair professor!" he exclaimed while standing up, everyone was surprised at his outburst, even Snape, "You ask questions that nobody would normally be able to answer and when someone seems to know them you ignore her and say she's foolish, and that just because Harry have fame he doesn't even want, that's just wrong!" he said, the other students looked at him blankly, not expecting somebody to stand up to the frightening potion teacher, who seemed pretty angry by the way,

"I will not tolerate insubordination in this class" Snape exclaimed, "I will make an exception since you come from another country and may not know how school works here. If you don't know the answer of a simple question then you are just another dumberhead I usually have to teach, now _sit down_" he ordered, many student flinched at the tone of his voice but not Naruto, he was used to far worse,

"Ok then let's see" he turned and pointed a Slytherin, "Do you know any answer of the questions professor Snape asked?" the student sank a bit in his chair,

"I don't know" he admitted, Naruto chose a Gryffindor this time,

"And you?" he asked, the student shook his head, Naruto pointed at Malfoy,

"Maybe you know then?" Draco paled a bit, he wanted to stand up to Naruto but something in his eyes made this thought go away in fear,

"I, I don't know" he said, humiliated in front of the class and the housemaster of Slytherin, Snape was beyond angry that a student was winning against him in an argument by showing that even his house, and the kid he chose to favour, didn't know the answers to his questions, Naruto looked at him smugly,

"Seems like I was right professor" the class gasped as Naruto defied the teacher once again,

"Twenty points will be taken of Gryffindor for your insubordination and you will go to the headmaster office _now_" Snape ordered while staring at Naruto who didn't stop glaring at the professor, looking straight in his eyes. It last a short time, just enough for Snape to know that he wasn't afraid of him and Snape had the strange impression that he had a wild beast in front of him but Naruto finely broke the contact, took his belongings and went toward the exit. Just before he passed the door he turned toward the professor one last time,

"And if we knew everything, we wouldn't need to go to school now, would we?" and with that said he left, later he will be known for being the first and only student in Hogwarts history to have managed to bring Snape at a loss of word.

Now Naruto was going toward Dumbledore's office with mixed feelings, angry because of Snape and guilty because he got expelled from a lesson on his first week, he was sure that he disappointed the old wizard and he hated it. He stood in front of a statue of a weird monster until he heard,

"Lemon sherbet" and the statue move to reveal a staircase, Naruto went in and found the office, he looked in amazement at all the object in the room, most of them where gold but he stopped when he saw a phoenix, an old one but not less beautiful. He went toward the phoenix and put his hand forward, stopping a few centimeters in front of the phoenix to let him choose if he wanted to be stoked by him, the red animal closed the gap and that made Naruto smile. He was stroking the phoenix when he heard Dumbledore's voice,

"Beautiful creatures that are phoenixes, and difficult to approach too but I heard you were also chosen by a phoenix" Naruto looked up to see the old wizard come down some stairs, the guilt came back, "But would you mind to tell me why you are here?" and so Naruto told everything, from his excitement toward potion class from his confrontation with Snape, Dumbledore listened patiently and when Naruto finished he smiled, confusing Naruto.

"Although it is admirable to stand for your friends, professors Snape is a teacher here at Hogwarts and deserve the same respect that you will give to any teacher" Naruto looked at the ground, "Now onto your punishment" Naruto's head shot back up,

"Professor Snape already took points from Gryffindor" he exclaimed in panic, scared that Dumbledore will take more points from his house, the old wizards smile grew a bit larger,

"Yes but he sent you there so that means that he considers that you should have another punishment. How about we make you gather potions ingredients with Hagrid? It will even give you a pretext to look for a place to train in the dark forest" he said, chuckling slightly when he saw the look on Naruto's face,

"How did you… I thought no one saw me"

"Nobody did except for me, you are quite skilled for hiding, especially considering you wore bright orange clothes and where followed by a bright red phoenix" Dumbledore said, making Naruto smile, "Since it is too late for potion classes you should go straight to defense against the dark arts" he said and Naruto made his way toward the exit when he remembered something and went back toward Dumbledore,

"I nearly forgot to give you this back" he said while taking out the silver pocket watch,

"You can keep it, I made it as a welcome to the magical world present for you" Dumbledore said, pleased by Naruto's joy that was written on his face, Naruto thanked him and went to his next class. When they saw him Harry and Ron asked him what happened and he told them about his punishment that made them paled a bit when he mentioned the dark forest, they talked while they were waiting for their teacher to come when Hermione came with some papers,

"That's the notes on what we did in potion today, I thought you will need them" she told Naruto while giving him the notes,

"Thank you Hermione, how was the class while I was gone?"

"Horrible" Hermione, Harry and Ron said at the same time,

"It would have been slightly better if you didn't annoy him but what you did was still awesome" Ron said, they talked for a while and Naruto noticed some Gryffindors looking at him from the corner of his eyes and whispers about what he did in the potion class, apparently he became famous too, less than Harry of course. Defense against the dark arts was pretty disappointing since their teacher, professor Quirrell, seemed afraid of his own subject, it was _again_ only theory and the strong garlic smell in the room nearly drove him insane, one of the bad sides of having enhanced senses. When the day finished Naruto went to find the gamekeeper to start his punishment, he talked with him about different magical creatures and Naruto discovered that on the contrary of what people believed, there were no werewolves in the forest. After two hours of gathering potion ingredients Naruto was exasperated that he still didn't find any clearing that will do for his training, every time he found one there was potion ingredients or wildlife in it. He was kneeling next to a river he found to drink its water, a thing he was sure Hagrid will scold him for if he was here, but stopped when he heard noise right behind him. He turned around while grabbing one of the kunais he always carry with him, ninja always have to be prepared for anything after all, only to freeze at the sight of two beautiful silver horses with a horn forming on their forehead and golden hooves. He carefully put back his kunai and didn't move, not wanting to scare them, they just look at him in the eyes and Naruto saw great intelligence in them. He slowly raised his hands toward their heads and waited, hoping that they will close the gap but knowing that it have to be their choice, like the phoenixes chose. The young horses looked at each other briefly before placing their heads in Naruto's hands and let him stroke them, which he happily did. It last a while before they heard a neigh, they turned to see another beautiful horse with a full grown horn, gold hooves and of a white so pure it put fresh fallen snow to shame, the silver horses rubbed their heads one last time against Naruto before going toward what Naruto assumed was their mother. Naruto went back to Hagrid and told him what happened, the half-giant didn't stop to tell him how lucky he was to be able to not only see but also touch unicorns and told him all he knew about them while they finished Naruto's punishment, Snape unknowingly gave Naruto one of the best moment of his life.

The next day the Gryffindor first years were going to take a lesson they were all eager to start, flying. Well they were _nearly_ all eager to start this lesson, a few like Hermione and Neville was a bit scared of what could happen if you fell from a big height and theory wasn't going to help a lot here. Naruto and Harry, though, were excited by the prospect of flying, even thought they had class with the Slytherins, and of course Draco, who couldn't shut up about how god he was at flying and how his father said he should be in a team because he had such _natural_ talent in it and so on. He was starting to give Naruto a headache, so he was really relieved when the teacher, a woman with grey hair in spikes similar to Naruto's hair, came and told them in a strict voice to go to the left of their brooms.

"Stick out your right hand other the broom and say up" Madam Hooch said and everyone obeyed, some got their broom in their hand in their first try, like Harry, Draco and Naruto while some other just rolled around, like Hermione, or didn't move, like Neville.

"With feelings" Madam Hooch told when she saw that some of them had trouble with their brooms, Ron said "up" a few times, getting annoyed that his broom didn't move until the broom obeyed and went up… to slam directly in his face, making Harry and Naruto laugh,

"Oh shut up you" Ron said but couldn't help but smile too. When everybody got their brooms in their hands the lesson continued, Madam Hooch showed them how to mount their broom without sliding and passed in the rows to correct the grips if needed, Harry, Ron and Naruto were delighted when Madam Hooch told Malfoy he did it wrong for years.

"Now then, when I blow my whistle I want you to kick the ground, hard. Keep your brooms steady, rise a few feet and then come straight down by leaning forward slightly" she said but before she could bring the whistle to her lips Neville kicked the ground hard in fear of being left behind and begin to rise, with no control over his broom. Naruto could see his pale face as the teacher told him to go down, but he couldn't, the broom started to rise even more and moved sharply, as if it tried to throw Neville of it. Naruto didn't think twice before he kicked the ground himself and speed up to catch Neville, despite the protest from the teacher and a few students that told him to come down, but he didn't listen. He pursued Neville but it wasn't easy, Neville's broom took sharp turns and changed speed quickly and totally randomly and Naruto only managed to keep up because of his ninja training and his instinct. He followed him as the mad broom bumped against the wall of a tower, Neville was screaming and Naruto tried several time to grab him but barely missed each time, the insane broom tried to block him too. Naruto had Neville on his right side and the tower on his left, he tried to grab Neville when the dam broom moved to the left, Naruto tried to dodge but only managed to hit his left arm on the tower, he heard a cracking noise and a sharp pain he knew too well, his arm was broken. Neville finely fell and grabbed Naruto's arm, the left arm, Naruto didn't scream but the sudden pain made him let go of his broom and they fell. As they fell Naruto grabbed Neville with his right arm and pulled him so that he wouldn't land face first before they hit the ground. Naruto had the air knocked out of him but didn't have any more injury while Neville let out a small whine,

_"__Shit, he broke something"_ Naruto thought when he felt a familiar warmth and heard a sizzling sound, knowing what was happening he started to panic a bit,

'Don't heal me Kurama'

**"****And why shouldn't I?"** he asked,

'Because it is not normal here to heal like that, it will only bring suspicion on me' Naruto answered,

**"****Fine, fine"** the fox said with a sight as the sizzling sound stopped and the pain went back, just in time as the teacher arrive with the students, seeing that Naruto was up they thought he was in a better condition than Neville and the teacher checked him first,

"Broken wrist" she said, her face as pale as Neville, when she looked at Naruto's left arm, that he hid from the other student, she paled even more, it was twitching in a wrong way, "And a broken arm" some student gasped and looked at Naruto who just winced a bit as he moved his arm but nothing else. Madame Hooch turned toward the rest of the class, "none of you is to move as I take these boys to the infirmary. You leave these brooms where they are or you'll be out of Hogwarts before you can even say quidditch. Come on dears" she said as she led them to the infirmary, when they arrived the matron, Madam Pomfrey immediately rushed toward Naruto,

"Please heal Neville first, I'm ok" he said, shocking the others, a kid with a broken arm chose to stay in pain longer for somebody who only had a broken wrist, Madam Pomfrey would normally insist and heal by force if she had to but the seriousness in Naruto's voice warned her that he was serious so she healed Neville first, as fast as she could to heal the broken arm. While Naruto waited that his arm was healed Madam Hooch told him that even though he did something reckless he flew amazingly well for a total beginner,

"In fact I have a proposition for you, how about joining the Gryffindor quidditch team? You would make an excellent chaser with your reflexes" she said but Naruto's only answer was,

"What's quidditch?" Hooch and Neville looked at him in shock, they were starting to explain what quidditch was before being sent out by Madam Pomfrey so that she could concentrate on healing him, when they were gone she began healing him. After a short while he was ready to go,

"Please take care of your body, I do not enjoy seeing the same students as patients" Pomfrey said, Naruto smiled,

"I'll try but I can't promise anything" he said before going out, only to find himself in front of Madam Hooch,

"Follow me" she ordered, he followed her in the corridors until they bumped into McGonagall and Harry,

"Harry, why are you here?" he asked,

"Well I was caught by professor McGonagall when I was flying for…"

"You what Mr. Potter?" asked Hooch,

"He caught this ball" McGonagall interrupted, "after a fifty-foot dive. Didn't even scratch himself"

"So I suppose you are heading toward Wood?" Hooch asked, McGonagall nodded, "Then bring him with you, he will make an excellent chaser" she said, the teachers talked excitedly for a short time while Naruto and Harry exchanged confused glances. Soon Madam Hooch went away to continue her class while McGonagall led them toward a classroom, they met with a student called Wood and that was apparently the captain of Gryffindor's quidditch team, he was overjoyed to learn about what did Harry and Naruto and immediately took them in as a seeker and chaser.

"You're joking" Ron exclaimed, it was dinner time and Harry and Naruto told him what happened to them, "Seeker and Chaser, but first years _never_… You must be the youngest house players in about…"

"A century" Harry and Naruto interrupted,

"Wood told us" Harry continued, Ron was so amazed that he just sat and gapped at Harry, "We start training next week"

"But don't tell anybody, Wood wants to keep it secret" a short time after Malfoy came flanked by Crabbe, Goyle and a black haired guy that Naruto recognized as the one who bullied Hermione the first time he met her,

"Having a last meal Potter? When are you taking the train back to muggles?" he taunted,

"You're a lot braver now that you are on the ground and you've got your little friends" Harry said coolly, Naruto snickered,

"You find this funny? Strange coming from somebody who broke his arm the first time he flew, but I suppose it's all a mudblood can do" the black haired guy said,

"I prefer being a mudblood than a bastard like you" Naruto shot back calmly, not bothering to turn around to look at him, that infuriated the boy even more,

"We'll take you anytime on our own, tonight if you want" Malfoy said,

"Wizard's duel, no contact. Draco against Harry and me against the mudblood. What's the matter, never heard of a wizard's duel before I suppose?"

"Of course they have, I'll be Harry's second and we will find one for Naruto, who's yours?" Ron asked,

"Crabbe for Malfoy and Goyle for me" the dark haired Slytherin said, "Midnight at the trophy room, that's always unlocked" he said before they went away,

"What's a wizard's duel?" asked Harry, Ron explained them what it was when Hermione came,

"Excuse me" they looked at her, Ron and Harry in slight irritation and Naruto with a smile,

"Can't a person eat in peace in this place?" Ron asked but sank a bit in his chair when he saw the glare Naruto gave him, Hermione ignored Ron and spoke to Harry and Naruto,

"I couldn't help overhearing what you and Malfoy were saying and you _mustn't_ go wandering around the school at night, think of all the points you will lose Gryffindor if you're caught, and you're bound to be. It's very selfish of you"

"And it's really none of your business" Harry said, Hermione went away with a huff and Naruto glared at him, "What?"

It was nearly midnight and Naruto, Ron and Harry went toward the exit of their common room when they heard a voice coming from the chair nearest from them, I can't believe you're going to do this" said Hermione as she stood up, wearing a pink dressing-gown and a frown,

"Please Hermione, just let us pass" Naruto said before Ron could say anything,

"I almost told the prefect you know, he would've stop this" she said,

"Come on" Harry told Ron and Naruto, irritation clearly evident in his voice as he passed the fat lady painting. They followed but so did Hermione, scolding them. She was going to go back in the common room when she saw that the fat lady wasn't there,

"Now what am I going to do?" she asked,

"Not our problem" said Ron,

"How about you become my second? You don't have much else to do right now after all" Naruto said, the others stared at him blankly before Hermione sighted,

"Ok you win, I'll be your second, but only because I don't have a choice" she told him, Naruto just smiled. They walked in silence until they heard some snuffling and found Neville curled up and fast asleep, he suddenly woke up and looked at them,

"Thank goodness you found me, I've been out there for hours. I forgot the password to go to bed" he said,

"The password is Pig snout, but it won't help you since the fat lady is not there, if you'll excuse us we have somewhere to go" Ron said,

"Wait don't leave me here, the bloody baron already passed twice" he panicked,

"You can come but stay quiet or we will get caught" Naruto told him, they made their way to the trophy room, praying that Filch or his cat Mrs. Norris, don't find them. They were lucky and went in the trophy room to find the black haired kid alone,

"Where are the others?" Naruto ask,

"A bit late" he answered coolly, "But that won't stop our duel filthy mudblood"

"What's your name?" Naruto asked, "I'll at least remember the name of the guy I beat" the boy scoffed at that,

"Last time was only because I let my guard down, my name is David Quin, yours?"

"Naruto Uzumaki, now let's start" Naruto said as they took their wands out, they stared at each other until they both raised their wand at the same time,

"**verdimillious**" they said at the same time, green sparks shot from their wands, Naruto dodged those that went toward him but David wasn't as fast and the sparks hit him on the right shoulder, creating a small blast that put him off balance, seeing an opportunity Naruto cast the spell again and disarmed his opponent.

"It's my win" Naruto said, "now stop bothering us, and since Malfoy is still not there I suppose it is a forfeit" he started to make his way back toward the exit when he hear a mewing, everyone froze, when they turned around they saw that David was gone but Filch cat was here, and Filch near. They ran away as fast as they could but Filch always seemed near, they didn't know where they were going and didn't care, until they ran into a locked door,

"This is it" Ron said, "We're done for"

"Oh, move over" Hermione said as she grabbed Harry's wand, tapped the lock and whispered "**Alohomora**" the lock clicked and the door swung open, they rushed in and closed the door, they heard Filch pass and go away.

"He thinks the door is closed" said Harry,

"And for a good reason" Ron said in a small voice, they turned and saw a gigantic three headed dog that was growling at them, so they did the only logical thing people will do in their situation: they rushed out of the room, closed the door and ran as fast as they could toward their common room.

"I didn't even noticed that we were in the forbidden corridor" Naruto said once they were all back,

"What hat do they think they're doing? Locking a thing like that in a school, if any dog needs exercise this one does" Ron exclaimed,

"You don't use your eyes don't you?" Hermione asked "Didn't you see on what it was standing?"

"The floor?" Harry suggested, "Sorry but I was too preoccupied by his heads"

"And there were three of them if you didn't notice" Ron stated,

"It was standing on a trap" Naruto said, "It was guarding something that even the prefects don't know about"

"I can see that one of you use his eyes at least, now I'm going to bed before one of you gets a brilliant idea to get us killed, or worse, expelled" she said before going to bed,

"She really needs to sort her priorities" Ron said but Harry was wondering what was in the little package that Hagrid took at Gringotts, as he said that they are not a safer place than the goblins bank except Hogwarts, but what would need such protection?

**A/N: Well I wonder what is hidden, it's not like Harry Potter's story is well known right? The next chapter will have the troll and the beginning of a less strict Hermione. I hope you can help me invent spells and potions if you want (I already have a few ideas myself). I hope you enloyed and see you next chapter ^^**


	4. Chapter 4

The tale of the ninja wizard

Chapter 4: Halloween and a troll

**A/N: Hey guys I'm back! I wrote this chapter in my breaks, when revising is on the point of driving me mad and I need a breather. In this chapter Naruto will stand out at one point for reasons I will explain at the end of the chapter but I hope you will like that, all I can say is that he will use what he learned with his training with Kurama (that is not exactly typical ninja training). I also wanted to answer to Jose19: No, Naruto's ninja abilities will not be impaired because he will train a lot in both ninja and wizard field, being hokage is still his dream and he will not abandon it. And in time Naruto will stop being afraid of ghost, after all he is surrounded by ghosts so he has to at one point. Well now that it's all said and written, let's go to the story shall we?**

Disclaimer: If I owned Naruto or Harry Potter I will be rich and wouldn't write fanfictions now would I?

"Dialogue"

_"Thoughts"_

'Mental dialogue'

**"Kurama dialogue"**

**_"_****_Kurama thoughts"_**

"**_Spells and jutsus_**"

The next morning Naruto woke up early and saw that he was the only one up, as usual. He went to his daily training with Kurama, well training that was very limited and that mostly resumed at looking for a good training spot, not finding one and train basic chakra control in frustration. Well it was what he expected to happen but after an hour of search, he decided to take a break and go drink at the river he met the unicorns. He smiled at the memory as he drank the fresh water, he went up to search again but stopped when he saw the two young unicorns and their mother not far away, staring at him. The mother indicated that she wanted him to follow her and he obeyed. When he got close the two foals rubbed their heads on his hands before following with him their mother deeper in the forest. They walked a while, Naruto stroking the foals happily, before the unicorn mother stopped in front of a clearing. Naruto walked in it and saw that this place was the perfect training spot, it was large, had no potion ingredients and no wildlife that he would disturb. He turned around and thanked the unicorns for helping him, they couldn't talk but Naruto saw a twinkle in their eyes, it was like they smiled at him with their eyes. Naruto then created shadow clones and started his first serious training since coming in Hogwarts, under the gaze of the three unicorns.

Naruto was so focused on his training that he didn't realize what time it was until Amaterasu came and dropped a large package and a letter in front of him. He petted Amaterasu to thank her and went took the letter that he opened carefully by habit only to find a neat handwriting that he didn't recognize.

"I heard from Professor Hooch that you will be part of the Gryffindor's quidditch team and send you a broom with the help of your hokage, congratulation for being in a quidditch team. Oliver Wood will start your training tonight at seven o'clock for your first training session, good luck.

Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore."

Naruto's eyes went wide, a broom? Old man Sarutobi and Dumbledore gave him a broom? He was overjoyed and didn't waste any time to open his present, it was beautiful in his opinion, sleek and shiny with a mahogany handle, a long tail of neat, straight twigs and Nimbus Two Thousand written in gold near the top. He kept a mental note of asking what his broom was as he didn't know anything about them except he could fly with them. It was then that he realized something, the letters arrived and that meant he missed breakfast, and his stomach realized this too. He said goodbye to the unicorns who staid next him while he trained and rushed back to the dormitories to change his clothes. Luckily nobody found him and he looked at the time, he had enough time left to eat before lessons started so he rushed in the kitchen to ask the cooks if he could eat the leftovers since they were always some. When he arrived in the kitchen he was surprised to see that the cooks were all little creatures two to three feet tall with spindly arms, oversized heads and eyes and long, pointed, bat-like ears. They wore homemade clothes made from various things like pillowcases or tea-towels, they looked as surprised by this encounter as him and some even tried to hide themselves, there was an awkward silence before one of them spoke,

"May I ask what you need, young sir?" he said with a high, squeaky voice. Naruto rubbed the back of his head sheepishly,

"Well I missed the breakfast so I was wondering if I could ask for some leftovers."

"Certainly young sir, follow me" the elf said before leading him to one of the tables, Naruto noticed that the kitchen was a high-ceiling room and had four tables similar to the ones in the great hall above it, they were also all in exactly the same place. He then looked at the creature that lead him near the end of a table, a brick fireplace next to it, the creature had the same greyish colour as his counterparts and light brown eyes. The creature motioned him to sit down, when he did several creatures came with helpings of bread, eggs, sausage and everything else that they made for breakfast. Naruto ate the food with enthusiasm under the gaze of the small creatures that stopped working for a moment, when he finished Naruto looked at the creature who led him to the table,

"I'm sorry but I don't know much about the magical world, could you tell me about your race?" Naruto asked politely, the creatures gladly answered, taking turns to inform him about what were house elves and their duties here. Naruto learned that they were working here for free, not because they were slaves but because they liked to serve and one of their honour codes is to be of the upmost loyalty toward their master, he also learned that being given a clothe by their master will free them and that it is considered a great dishonour for them. He also learned all of their chores at Hogwarts.

"I see, thank you for your hard work, especially the food, I never ate food this good before coming here" Naruto said with a bright smile, the elves seemed happy to be praised even if they tried to hide it. He talked to them for a while, telling them about where he comes from, not telling any details that could reveal the existence of ninjas of course, but enough for them to know about how the village looked like and the people that took care of him. When he mentioned about ramen the elves were curious about this unknown food, and Naruto was more than happy to tell them about his favourite meal.

The rest of the day went pretty quickly for Naruto, when seven o'clock was near he rushed with Harry toward the quidditch pitch with their brooms in hand, they saw the stadium for the first time. Hundreds of seats were raised in stands around the pitch so that the spectators could be high enough to see what was going on and at each end of the stadium were three golden poles with hoops in the end. They couldn't wait for Wood to come and started flying, they passed in and out of the goalposts and just enjoyed the feeling of flying, their brooms moving where they wanted at their lightest touch. They could've done this for hours but they heard Wood telling them to come down, once they were of their brooms they saw that the quidditch captain had a bright smile,

"I see what McGonagall and Hooch meant, you two are naturals. I'm just going to teach you the rules, then you will have to come to team practice three times a week" he opened a crate that contained four different-sized balls, "Now quidditch is easy enough to understand even though it's not that easy to play, they are seven players in each team and three of them are called chaser. That's you Naruto"

"Three chasers" Naruto and Harry repeated as Wood took out a bright red ball about the size of a football,

"This ball's called the quaffle, the chasers throw the quaffle to each other and try to get it through one of the hoops to score a goal. Ten points every time the quaffle goes through one of the hoops, follow me?" they nodded, "Now there's another player on each side called the keeper, I'm Gryffindor's keeper by the way. My role is to fly around the hoops to stop the other team from scoring"

"Three chasers to score with the quaffle and a keeper to stop it, got it" Naruto said,

"So what are they for?" Harry asked, pointing to the other three balls,

"I'll show you, take that" Wood said while giving Harry a small club, a bit like a rounder's bat, "These are the bludgers" he showed them two identical jet black balls, smaller than the quaffle and that seems to struggle to release the straps that keep them inside the box, "Stand back" Wood warned before he released one of the balls that went immediately high in the air, before coming down towards Harry's face. He swung the club in an attempt to stop it to break his nose and sent the ball zig-zagging away in the air, it went back toward Wood that stopped it with some difficulty before he finely managed to put it back in the box.

"The bludgers tries to throw players of their brooms, that's why each team have two beaters, their role is to protect their team from them and to send them toward the other team, the Weasley twins are our beaters. You think you got that?" the young recruits nodded, "Very good" he said with a smile,

"Er, have the bludgers ever killed anyone?" Harry asked worryingly,

"Never at Hogwarts, we had a couple of broken jaws but nothing worse than that. Now the last member of the team is the seeker, that's you Harry. And you don't have to worry about the quaffle or the bludgers"

"Unless they crack my head open" he stated, making Naruto chuckle,

"Don't worry, the Weasleys are more than a match for them, I mean they are like human bludgers themselves." Wood then took the last ball out, compared to the other balls it was tiny. It was bright gold and had silver wings, "This" he said "is the golden snitch, and it's the most important ball of the lot. It's very hard to catch because it's so fast and hard to see. It's the seekers job to catch it. You've got to weave in and out of the chasers, beaters, bludgers and quaffle to get it before the other team seeker, because whichever seeker catch the snitch give his team an extra one hundred and fifty points, so they nearly always win. That's why seeker's get fouled so much. A game of quidditch only ends when the snitch is caught, so it can last forever. I think the record is three months, they had to keep bringing substitute s so that the players could get some sleep. Well that's it, any questions?" They shook their head, they understood what they had to do, doing it was more problematic, especially for Harry,

"We won't practice with the snitch yet" he said while carefully placing it back, "It's too dark so we might lose it. We will practice with this instead" he said while taking out golf balls, "While I train Harry take the quaffle and get used to it, throw it in the hoops in different situations, I'll come to train you after." He said to Naruto, who nodded and took off with the quaffle. While Wood was training with Harry, Naruto was bored, his ninja training made aiming in the hoops child play, no matter what handicap he set. But it was different when Wood was there, the quidditch captain was really happy that Harry showed he will be a great seeker, so when he trained Naruto by playing his role as a keeper he was overjoyed to see that he didn't even need to take it easy. Even when Wood was serious Naruto scored a good amount of points, he even made spins that made the quaffle go where Wood wasn't expecting it to. They trained like that for a while before Wood said it was time to go, he had no doubt that they would win this year quidditch cup with recruits like this.

Naruto was so busy with quidditch practice, his ninja training and studying magic (yes studying!), that he couldn't believe that it's already been two months since he came at Hogwarts. In these two months he did a lot of things, every morning he went to the clearing to train his ninja skills and sometime spells, that was easier when he discovered that what his shadow clones learned, he learned it himself when they dispelled. He also became one of the top students, a feat that he worked really hard to achieve. He was one of the top students nearly everywhere, except in history of magic where at the first lesson, when he discovered the teacher was a ghost, he nearly ran away and it took a lot of efforts and bargain from Harry and Ron to convince him to stay. Surprisingly, after a rough start, Snape couldn't help but recognize Naruto's talent in making potions and even if he didn't like him he respected this talent, Naruto also respected the teacher, didn't like him much but it was better than how than nothing. The other teachers were quite impressed by his progress in practical training, being one of the first, if not the first to succeed in doing a spell, even if he wasn't very good in the theoretical aspect of the classes. In the two months Naruto often went to talk with the house elves, they seemed to appreciate that too as not long after his first visits a new meal appeared, ramen, and Naruto's food seemed to taste even better than before. He also loved to talk with Hagrid about the magical world and their creatures and grew closer to the big half-giant. For the first time in his life he felt accepted, at home. Of course Konoha was still his home but for him Hogwarts became a new home, where he was already accepted, even if they didn't know much about him as he have to hide that he is a ninja and that he has a great beast in him that he befriended. The fact that he hides something about him labelled him as a mysterious guy and drawn the attention of some people, especially girls, and kept away some others, like Hermione. Now Naruto considered Hermione as his first friend but the girl was intelligent and curious so it was dangerous for him to stay close to her, but the fact that he never told anything about himself drove her away little by little. They had an odd friendship because of that, they never hang out with each other, one because he was scared he might say something that might make her discover what he is and the other because it frustrated her that he was this cautious about his past. Sure they sometimes talked to each other and studied together but apart from that there was a distance that didn't seem to close itself.

It was in this context that Halloween started, they were in charms class and were going to learn how to make objects levitate, something they all looked up to since the day the teacher made Neville's frog fly around the classroom. They were put into pairs, Harry with Seamus, Naruto with Neville, a relief for the others as Naruto was the only one who could doge Neville's attempt to take their eyes out, and Ron with Hermione. Naruto feared the worst and he was right as he heard Ron argue with Hermione who tried to help him get the spell right, not in the nicest way but still trying to help, when Ron told her to show him if she was this clever she made the feather they were training with fly, on her first try. Naruto managed to do it on his first try too and tried to help Neville to succeed with the spell but in the end he didn't manage to pull it off, Ron neither. Ron was annoyed at the end of the lesson and talked about it with Harry, Seamus and him,

"It's no wonder no one can stand her" Ron said, "She's a real nightmare, honestly" somebody pushed past Harry and Naruto noticed it was Hermione, with tears in her eyes,

"I think she heard you" Harry stated,

"So? She must've realize she's got no friends" he answered before Naruto punched his shoulder pretty hard, "Ow, what was that for" he asked,

"For insulting my friend" Naruto shot back while sending him a glare that made him take a step back before Naruto took off to find Hermione.

"I think you pissed him off this time" Harry stated the obvious again. Naruto tracked Hermione down easily, she was in the girls toilets, in one of the cabin, crying. Having gone in the girls bath in Konoha to perfect his sexy jutsu he went in with no shame and stopped in front of the cabin where Hermione was,

"Don't pay attention to what Ron said, he's just jealous that you're better than him in class" he heard a surprised yelp,

"What are you doing here? No I don't care, leave me alone" She said between sobs,

"I came here because I saw my friend cry and I don't intend to leave you alone when you cry" he said calmly,

"Yeah, right, a friend. But that doesn't stop you to make fun of me with the others" Naruto was shocked that she thought he did something like that,

"I would never do something like that" he exclaimed in disbelief,

"Then why do you never say anything about you, it's like you don't want people close to you. Why can't you trust me if I'm your friend?" she nearly shouted, Naruto was taken aback by this,

"I, I'm sorry, I can't tell. I promised that I would not and I don't really want to think about my past, it wasn't the most peaceful one out there" he answered in a low voice, "but you know, I never had friends before I met you. You're my first friend and I won't let you think otherwise, to hell what Ron said, you have a friend, so if you want to talk I'll be there" he said but it didn't calm her,

"So you _promised_ that you wouldn't talk about you? Yeah, right… Leave me alone" Naruto was going to say something when he was stopped by a hand on his shoulder, he turned around to see an older girl from Hufflepuff,

"You should leave her alone, give her some time to calm down" she said, Naruto agreed with a sigh, knowing that Hermione will not listen to what he had to say anymore. Naruto felt like the day was slower than usual, and sometimes lost focus, preoccupied by his crying friend that still didn't come back, and Hermione missing lessons meant she was really hurt. Ron promised he would apologize to Hermione, if only to keep the whiskered wizard from punching him again as he had a bruise on his shoulder and it didn't feel like Naruto was punching him hard, but it didn't stop Naruto to glare at him, scaring him more each time. Dinner came and no Hermione was in sight, the delicious food didn't raise Naruto's mood,

"Where's Hermione?" Harry asked,

"Patty Patil said that she won't leave the girls bathroom, she's been in there all afternoon crying" Neville informed them, causing Naruto to send the strongest glare yet to Ron who looked like he wanted to be anywhere except here. Naruto's glare ended as the massive doors burst open with a panicking Quirrell running toward the teachers table screaming,

"Troll in the dungeons! Troll in the dungeons! Though you'd want to know" he said before fainting, all the students panicked except Naruto who knew he could probably beat one with his ninja training. When Dumbledore brought back order and told the prefects to bring the students in their dormitories he followed quietly.

"How did a troll come in?" Harry asked,

"Not alone for sure, trolls are quite stupid. Maybe Peeves let it in as a joke" Ron said, both Harry and him stopped when they felt Naruto's hand on their shoulders,

"Hermione, she doesn't know there is a troll here" he said before he ran towards the girls bathrooms, closely followed by Harry and Ron. They arrived in the corridor leading toward their destination when they saw the troll disappear in the bathroom, followed shortly by a scream. Naruto immediately went as fast as he could, leaving his two friends behind as they were much slower than him. He saw the troll starting to break sinks and Hermione under the last one, he jumped in front of the troll and taunted it, the troll tried to hit him but he dodged every blows of the creature, well until it's club it the wall and a fragment of it hit Naruto's head with enough force to push him in a cabin. Harry and Ron arrived the moment Naruto was knocked out and panicked, Harry tried to stop the troll by jumping on it. It didn't realise that Harry had jumped on it but it did felt the wand in his nose, the troll tried to shake Harry off until it caught him by the leg and swung its club at him, Harry barely dodging it and even though he had his wand fell on the floor. Ron, with the help of Hermione, performed the levitation spell and the troll looked as his club rise in the air, turned a bit and fell on his head with a loud noise. The troll let go of Harry, stumbled a bit and… Didn't pass out, it let a loud roar and took solidly its club in his hand and the young wizards knew that the levitation charm won't help anymore. The troll aimed to strike Hermione, the club went down and she screamed but the blow never came, she opened her eyes to see the back of Naruto, only this time he was surrounded in a blue substance that she didn't recognized, and he stopped the troll's club with only his left hand, to the shock of the others.

"I won't let you harm my friend" Naruto said coldly with an equally cold glare, the troll tried to take his club back but Naruto tightened his hold on it, the wood cracked under his hand while he readied his right arm to hit the troll. Blue chakra flowed in a spiral all around his arm and the energy that cloaked him was lighter,

"**_Single spiral: Chakra canon_**" he said as he strike the troll with his hand open, the condensed chakra expelled itself with enough force to push back the big creature several metres as Naruto's arm had little cuts on it, the club fell on the ground and before anybody could reacted Naruto disappeared from where he was standing to appear in the air in front of the trolls head, his right arm ready to strike again but this time it was two spirals, one blue and one red, that formed around his arm,

"**_Double spiral_**" he said as he hit the troll, the power of it enough to send it crashing on the floor, making it shook a bit, and knocking him out. Naruto landed on the floor, his arm broken in several parts, deep cuts everywhere and a few bits of bones pointing out of it, the pain was enormous but was quickly washed away when a familiar warmth and sizzling sound came in it.

'Thanks Kurama' he mentally told the fox,

**"****Reckless brat, you know how dangerous is this jutsu and you used it anyway"** Kurama answered angrily,

'Well what do you expect me to do when my friends are in danger, speaking of which…'

He looked at his friends, who were looking at him in disbelief, Ron's mouth was wide open. He couldn't blame them after what he did, after all for them what he did was impossible when for him it was just the results of his special training.

"W-What happened? How did you do that? No more importantly what was that? Are you hurt?" they said as they rushed to his side, he did the best to hide his arm under his cloak but they saw it, and how it was slowly healing too.

"I'm alright" he tried to reassure them, "I'll explain everything to you later so please don't talk about it to anyone" he pleaded, they were taken aback by his request but accepted, just after that professor McGonagall, followed by Snape and Quirrell, arrived. Quirrell looked at the troll before giving a short whimper and sat down on a toilet, clutching his heart. Snape bend over the troll. McGonagall was looking at Ron, Harry and Naruto and they never seen her this angry,

"What on earth were you thinking of?" She said with cold fury in her voice,

"Please professor McGonagall, they were looking for me" Hermione said,

"Miss Granger!"

"I-I was looking for the troll because I-I thought I could deal with it on my own, you know because I read all about them" Harry and Ron looked at her blankly, Hermione Granger was telling a lie to a teacher? "If they hadn't found me I'd be dead now. Harry stuck his wand in its nose and Ron knocked it out with its own club but Naruto was wounded when he tried to distract it" she said, Harry, Ron and Naruto tried to look like this story wasn't knew to them and Naruto was glad that she didn't mention what he did,

"Well in that case… You foolish girl, how could you think of tackling a mountain troll by yourself" McGonagall said, Hermione hung her head,

_"__Well one of us could"_ she though while thinking of what Naruto did,

"Miss Granger, five points will be taken from Gryffindor for this. I'm very disappointed in you, if you're not hurt at all, you'd better go to Gryffindor tower, students are finishing the feast in their houses." Hermione left. Professor McGonagall turned toward Harry, Ron and Naruto, "Well I still think you were lucky, but not many first-years students could take down a full-grown mountain troll. You each win Gryffindor five points. Dumbledore will be informed of this. You may go, I will bring mister Uzumaki at the infirmary." She said before leading Naruto away. On the way to the infirmary McGonagall had a clear look at the arm Naruto tried to hide, there were still one or two bits of bone slightly pointing out of it and cuts but it didn't bleed nor did it heal itself anymore. The teacher turned pale when she saw his arm,

"My god, you should have told me sooner that your arm was in this condition" she exclaimed, "What were you thinking?"

"Well it doesn't hurt that much" he replied, shocking her even more as she saw he didn't lie.

"How did you get this wound?" she asked,

"When the troll hit the wall some fragments hit my arm" he tried to lie but the teacher knew the wound didn't match with what he said,

"Then why does it look like the injuries come from inside your arm as well? Tell me what happened" she demanded,

"I can't talk about it!" he snapped, taking the teacher aback by his outburst, "If you want to know talk to professor Dumbledore" he said. The rest of the trip they stayed silent, when they went in madam Pomfrey was frantic when she saw his arm and immediately went to heal him, giving him a potion and casting a few spells, his arm was mostly healed but he still needed a cast for _a few weeks_ Pomfrey said but Naruto knew that in one week maximum he would be healed, one of the good sides of having a great beast inside you. He was released and went in Gryffindor's tower where he was greeted by Harry, Ron and Hermione _together_ and that made him smile, they were all friends now but he couldn't stop worrying, how will they react when he will tell them he is a ninja?

**A/N: ****Well this chapter is finished and I have an explanation to give. The reason why I chose this moment for Naruto to reveal himself as a ninja is that I think Naruto is the type of guy to go all out to save his friends, even if he reveals the fact he is a ninja in the process. The techniques he used are the special Jutsus are what he learned in his special training with Kurama, they are powerful but dangerous for his body as you could see, they will have variations depending of the way he use them and the nature he gives the chakra and different drawbacks. Well then, hope you enjoyed and see you next chapter ^^**


	5. Chapter 5

The tale of the ninja wizard

Chapter 5: Quidditch and suspicion

**A/N: Hey guys I'm back! So now I realized that it's easier to write this story than my other one for the moment, but I'm sure at one point I will have trouble here too. The thing is, I have tons of ideas for this story but I have to find what I keep, and when I write them as I'll try to do the seven books of Harry Potter (keyword: try) so if you have any idea or things you think will be nice to see, a spell, a potion or a creature (knowing that I have the ninja and magical world together) you can send them in a review or a private message. I thank you for your support and I hope that we can stay together until the end ^^. Well then I wrote enough, let's start the story!**

Disclaimer: I think you get it already…

"Dialogue"

_"Thoughts"_

'Mental dialogue'

**"Kurama dialogue"**

**_"_****_Kurama thoughts"_**

"**_Spells and jutsus_**"

The next day Naruto didn't train in the clearing, his arm was still hurt even though it healed faster thanks to Kurama's intervention, but what he needed was to lay back. He was completely scared of what will happen when he will tell his friends that he is a ninja. Will they even look at him after that? He did hide the fact that he was somebody trained, and still training, to be an efficient killer after all. In the worst case they will also ask how his arm healed itself too, and he will have to tell them that he also has a great beast sealed in him, and he didn't think that telling them he was his friend will reassure them. After hours of trying to figure out a way to tell them without them freaking out and finding none, he decided that he had only one way to do it. And so he made his way toward Dumbledore's office, when he got in he saw the old wizard behind his desk, smiling at him.

"Hello Naruto, I heard from Professor McGonagall and Madam Pomfrey that your arm was in quite a state last night. Is it better?" Naruto sit in a chair in front of the desk,

"It is better but not fully healed, it will take a few more days. But you know why I came here don't you?"

"To ask if you can count on me to help you tell your friend about your secret, is that right?" he asked with a smile,

"Yes, the troll wasn't knocked out by his club falling on him as they said, it annoyed it even more and was going to kill Hermione. You can guess what happened next" he said sheepishly,

"You shouldn't worry, somebody would have found out you were a ninja one day or another and without you, your friends will be dead or in critical condition. Nobody can blame you for this"

"Thanks old man, sorry, sir!" Naruto corrected himself, making Dumbledore laugh,

"It is alright to call me like that, I am an old man after all. Bring your friends here after your lessons." Naruto laughed nervously,

"Well then this matter is settled, we should go to breakfast before most of it is finished" Naruto nodded before rushing to the great hall. When he arrived he awkwardly sit next to his friends, they ate in silence for a while before he told them to meet him after the classes. After a long and stressful day for Naruto the dreaded time came. Harry, Ron and Hermione followed him without asking anything, seeing that it was hard enough for Naruto to tell them whatever he was going to say. But they were surprised when he led them toward a statue, told a password and went in as if it was perfectly normal, but they were even more surprised when they got in. They were in Dumbledore's office, and the old wizard was smiling at them,

"Why are we here?" Hermione nervously asked,

"Because you wanted to know my secret"

"Obviously we expect everything told here to be kept secret" Dumbledore added calmly, the young wizards just nodded,

"Well then, what do you know about ninjas?" Naruto asked, the others were taken aback by that,

"Well they were muggles assassins in japan in the past, right? What does it have anything to do with you?" Hermione said, Naruto smiled nervously while rubbing the back of his head,

"And if I tell you ninja still exists but in another country hidden from the rest of the world?" they looked at him blankly,

"I don't really think it's possible to hide an entire country, especially from wizards" Ron said, Dumbledore smile grew larger,

"I wouldn't think so, they are masters in concealment after all"

"Wait, are you are saying that ninjas really still exist, sir?" Harry asked,

"Well of course, and you are next to one right now" they gasped at that,

"Then you are…" Ron started,

"A young ninja, yes"

"So what you did with the troll…" Hermione continued,

"I used what I learned, even though it wasn't techniques normal ninjas can use" he answered,

"What do you mean by that?" she asked,

"I'll tell you later"

"So, what was the thing surrounding you anyway?" Harry asked,

"Chakra, an energy that comes from the body and the mind. Theoretically anybody can use it if you train properly "

"Wait, so even wizards can?"

"I'm afraid not, and it is one of the reasons why the magical and ninja world are kept hidden from each other. When a wizard learns to control chakra he can't use magic anymore"

"What!" they exclaimed in shock,

"But why?" Hermione asked,

"Nobody have an answer and no one is ready to do tests for obvious reasons. The fact that ninjas and wizards have powers the other can't have is the reason of this secret, the tension it creates could start a war." Dumbledore answered,

"But if that is the case, how can Naruto be a wizard?" Ron asked,

"For unknown reasons some very few ninjas can also use magic, Naruto is the tenth person in history to have this gift"

"Tenth in history?" they exclaimed, shocked,

"Yeah, I had the same reaction when I was told this" Naruto said with a nervous laugh. An awkward silence followed,

"So, as a ninja, are you…" Harry started,

"A trained killer?" Harry nodded, "Yes"

"And when you said you weren't a normal ninja?" asked Ron, Naruto then explained that he had a great beast sealed in him, that he befriended him and he also told them about his village, how he was treated and how he lived. When he finished they were silent, not knowing what to say.

"I could understand if you don't want to stay close to a trained killer and a monster, I'll stay away from you if you want" he said while looking at the ground, fists clenched in fear of what they would say.

"Well that is a shock, I mean I wasn't expecting you to be a ninja. But I guess it explains all the weird things about you, well weirder that the rest of the magical world" Harry said, "But you're still the same Naruto we know, and after telling us all that do you really think that we will just leave you?" Naruto looked up,

"Having a ninja as a friend is kind of cool too" Ron continued,

"And you did reveal your secret to save us, if you have anything that troubles you, you can ask us for help. We are your friends after all, right?" Hermione finished, Naruto sighed in relief,

"Thanks guys, I mean it. But if you tell this to anyone I would have to kill you in accordance to my village laws"

"What!" they exclaimed,

"I'm joking, joking" he said while laughing, annoying his three friends,

"Don't joke about things like that!" they said at the same time but they finished by laughing with him, the tension gone.

"Well then, I believe that you should go before dinner starts without you" Dumbledore said, the young wizards nodded before making their way toward the exit, "Not you Naruto, I still have something to say to you" Naruto told his friends to go before him before he made his way back toward the old wizard,

"What is it Dumbledore-sensei?"

"I just wanted you to know that I informed professor McGonagall and Madam Pomfrey about your secret. I also wanted to tell you that Sarutobi and I are working to reveal the existence of both worlds, if everything goes well you won't have to hide that you are a ninja anymore"

"Really? That would be awesome!" Naruto exclaimed excitedly, making Dumbledore smile,

"You can go now, don't make your friends wait too long"

"Right, sir!" he said before rushing toward the great hall, his life just got a lot easier.

As November started the weather turned very cold, Naruto didn't like the cold. In the past he often suffered from it, the villagers destroying or burning his house from time to time he often camped in the forest, struggling to keep a bit of heat. Memories he didn't tell his friends about, he didn't want to be pitied and, with their first quidditch match, didn't want to distract Harry. His friend was completely stressed out, Naruto was a bit stressed too but nothing compared to Harry. He couldn't blame him though, between the students that told him he would be great and the ones that told him that they'll be running underneath him holding a mattress , he really had reasons to be stressed out. Well he had the same problem too but he didn't care about what others say, nobody saw Harry or him play because Wood wanted to keep them secret, but somehow the news that Harry was the seeker and him a chaser leaked out. It seemed crazy how he managed to keep his secret in Hogwarts, even to the ghosts, he felt proud but also a bit ashamed that he hid his identity from the others. In fact he decided to reveal his secrets to some people in Hogwarts, the house elves, Hagrid and the ghosts, the last ones not really by choice but because they would have found out anyway, he was scared for three days after that. Apart from that, his friends seemed to all get along, Ron and Harry appreciated Hermione's help for work and she became more relaxed about breaking rules since him, Harry and Ron saved her from the troll.

The day before their first quidditch match the four of them were out in the freezing courtyard during break and she had conjured a small blue fire that could get carried in a jam jar, while they used it to keep themselves warm Snape crossed the yard. They hid the flame but that attracted his attention and came toward them, he didn't discover the fire but took points from Gryffindor anyways along with the book Harry took from the library. Later he went alone to take it back from Snape, but he returned empty-handed and sprinting, he then told them that Snape was wounded by the three headed dog they saw.

"You know what it means right" he finished breathlessly, "That was where he was at Halloween, trying to pass this dog and steal what it was guarding, and I bet _he_ let the troll in to create a diversion" Hermione's eyes were wide while Naruto frowned,

"No, he wouldn't" she said, "I know he's not very nice but he wouldn't steal something that Dumbledore was keeping safe"

"Seriously Hermione, you think all teachers are saints or what?" Ron snapped, "I'm with Harry, I wouldn't put anything past Snape" Naruto frown deepened,

"I'm with Hermione on this one" he interrupted, making the others look at him, Harry and Ron in shock, and Hermione in gratitude, "Don't get me wrong, I don't really like Snape but our personal feelings mustn't cover our judgment. But something is suspicious about this, there is definitely someone after what is guarded, and probably a teacher too since no one apart from them are supposed to know about it, but we can't act imprudently" the others stared at him with big blank eyes, making him sigh,

"Wow, I never expected you to say something like that" Ron said, the others nodding, annoying him slightly,

"The hell? If I'm not cautious in my line of work I can die you know" he whispered, a silence followed that. Naruto cleared up his throat before continuing, "Anyway, we should keep an eye up and look for any information on what is hidden here, but we must be discreet" he said before going to bed, already planning to talk about this matter with Dumbledore.

The next morning, everyone was looking for the quidditch match of the day, everyone except Harry. He wasn't eating anything because of his stress, the opposite of Naruto who remained unchanged by the coming match. Naruto, Ron and Hermione tried to make Harry eat something but only managed to make him take a few bites, and only because Naruto threatened him to put him unconscious for the match if he didn't do it. After Wood's motivation speech Gryffindor's and Slytherin's quidditch teams went with Madam Hooch, the referee of the match, in the middle of the pitch. She warned the players, especially the Slytherins, that she wanted a fair game before the match begun.

Naruto focused on the match and not on the commentator doing rather interesting remarks on the game, immediately after the match started Angelina Johnson, a chaser of Gryffindor, took the quaffle and passed it to a teammate that tried to pass it to her again but it was intercepted by a Slytherin. He passed it to his captain, Marcus Flint, who tried to score but Wood managed to defend the loops and passed the quaffle to a chaser. The chaser passed the quaffle to Naruto, and that's when he rushed to score. It was one of the ideas of Wood, take advantage of the fact that he would be underestimated by the Slytherins so that he can easily pass them and score, like that the Slytherins would target him more. Naruto will be in more trouble but since he could manage the handicap he accepted. And that's how the first points of the match went to Gryffindor, the cheers of the Gryffindors filled the cold air with howls and moans from the Slytherins at the humiliation of having only one chaser single-handedly passed an entire team defense. The game lasted for a while, both team doing their best but Gryffindor had a slight edge, mostly because the Slytherins were focused on Naruto, not that it really stopped him from raising the score. At one point Harry seemed to have found the snitch but was blocked by Marcus Flint, he nearly got knocked off his broom. But that wasn't the first foul of Slytherins, and definitely not the last, not long after that Naruto had the quaffle and was trying to dodge the Slytherins that tried to stop him from moving until they suddenly scattered. Naruto saw one of the bludger going straight toward him and he didn't have the time to dodge, he put his arms in front of his head for protection until he felt pain in his chest and lower back at the same time, the force of the impact knocked him off his broom and made him do backflips in the air, unconscious.

Naruto found himself in a familiar dark place with water underneath him and a cage in front of him, he smiled when he saw the gigantic fox he got to befriend over the years,

"Yo Kurama, how are you doing?"

**"****I'm alright, you on the other hand need some medical attention, you fell from pretty high and the wizards outside are panicking, especially your three friends"** the fox said,

"Ah, it's true you can see what's outside even when I'm unconscious… So, who won the match?"

**"****You've been gravely wounded and you still want to know the result of the match?"** Kurama asked with a sweat-drop, Naruto nodded excitedly, making him sigh,

**"****From what I heard your team won after the dark haired kid nearly swallowed the gold shining thing"**

"Yes!" Naruto exclaimed while making a little victory dance, making Kurama laugh,

**"****Still as energetic as ever I see"** he stated, **"Well since you're stuck here until you are healed, that means tomorrow, what do you want to do?"**

"Hmm…" Naruto though for a moment before answering, "Say, can you tell me another story from your past?" the fox grinned,

**"****And you're still as curious as ever, ok then. The story I'll tell you about started three hundred years ago…"** As Kurama and Naruto spent some time together, in Hogwarts infirmary, things were _not_ as peaceful as in his mind. Madam Pomfrey was frantic as she cast healing spells applied potions to Naruto, he had a broken arm (again) and several wounds on his body with a slight concussion. She tried to make his friends go away but the best she got was them waiting at the exit. The next morning Harry, Ron and Hermione were sitting next to Naruto's bed when he slowly woke up, stretching himself with a loud yaw. He looked around and saw his friends looking at him happily,

"Hey guys, what's up?" he asked with a smiled,

"What's up? You're up that's what" Ron exclaimed,

"God, we thought you were going to be unconscious for at least a weak" Hermione said, Harry nodded and Naruto laughed at that.

"For what? A few little wounds? Come on, I would've been dead long ago if I was this fragile"

"What do you mean?" Harry asked,

"You know, orphan thrown in the streets for a while, the villagers hating me and trying to kill me… It's better to be tough in those situations" he said sadly, they didn't say anything after that until Naruto's stomach made itself known and they went to take breakfast. Unknown from them was the fact that a certain black haired Slytherin, named David Quin, was passing near the infirmary at this moment and heard everything. And he wasn't going to let pass a perfect chance to get back to the blond wizard for the humiliation he, and his house quidditch team, suffered.

**A/N: Yay, finished! I deeply apology for the time I take to post chapters but I discovered that it is really not easy to write a story. It's really something you should try one day, it makes you understand the problems that the authors can be confronted with (When I say write a story, I meant for you first, it can be fun even if you don't want to publish it ^^). The chapter is a bit shorter but I hope it doesn't bothers you too much. Hope you enjoyed and see you next chapter ^^**


	6. Chapter 6

The tale of the ninja wizard

Chapter 6: Naruto VS Naruto

**A/N: Hey guys, I'm back! Before we start I would like to precise one thing: No, we won't see Naruto in the mission in the land of the wave ark because this story is mainly about Naruto at Hogwarts, sure they will be some moments where we will follow him in the elemental countries but it will be later. Also, as he have to hide that he is a wizard and team seven has no member change it will go the same way than in the manga. But I will make the chunin exam for sure. I am also sorry for taking this long to update but I got stuck in one passage of this chapter, school also started again. I don't want you to think I'm just giving excuses; it is true that sometimes I just don't have enough motivation or a lack of inspiration to write a chapter. More importantly, a chapter will not come out until I'm satisfied with it. So, taking all this into account, it will take me some time to update, I hope that you will understand and forgive me for the long wait and that you will enjoy the story until it's end. Now then, let's start the chapter!**

"Dialogue"

_"Thoughts"_

'Mental dialogue'

**"Kurama dialogue"**

**_"_****_Kurama thoughts"_**

"**_Spells and jutsus_**"

After the quidditch match nothing exciting happened, Naruto trained every morning and night in both ninja and wizard skills, study, go to class, do his homework again and again… The only thing that changed is that Naruto kept an close eye on Snape to stop his friends from doing it, and all Naruto could see is a strict but loyal to Dumbledore teacher. However Dumbledore categorically refused to reveal anything about what was guarded in the castle, saying that it was not a matter students should be looking into so he left it at that. Time passed and still nothing happened until Christmas holiday, Naruto returned to his village as Hermione went home and Harry and Ron stayed at Hogwarts. The reason he didn't stay being that a mission was going to be given to him and his team that he learned was composed of Sakura Haruno, Sasuke Uchiha and their jonin sensei, Kakashi Hatake. They had to take a C-ranked escort mission, but it didn't turn out well. Sasuke nearly died and the two shinobi that attacked them were betrayed by their employer, a guy named Gato, who also mocked the death of one of them. When he came back to Hogwarts, Naruto had set his resolve to create his own way of the ninja and to train harder so that he won't have to lose anyone he cared about but the way Gato made fun of the death of one of the ninjas marked him. So when he was talking to his friends about the mirror Harry discovered this holiday he wasn't pleased to be interrupted by a group of Slytherins led by David Quin and Draco Malfoy.

"What do you want?" Ron asked in a voice that showed clearly he wasn't pleased by their presence, David just _innocently_ smiled.

"Nothing from you Weasley, I was just wondering if Naruto had nice holidays" he started before grinning, "after all it must be hard to go back to a village that hate you" some Slytherin snickered while Naruto tensed slightly, not expecting someone else than his friends to know.

"They weren't really nice, but not for the reason you expect" he calmly answered, Quin just snickered,

"Yeah, you must be used to it. It's probably in your blood, born from a family full of trash it is just normal for you to be treated as trash yourself" the group of Slytherins laughed loudly as the students around stared in shock, the great hall was now silent, "I'm sure your parents were trash that died a dog's dea…" before he could finish his group and him felt a violent force that pressured them, forcing them on their knees. Naruto was now standing in front of them, he felt a strange sensation but didn't pay it any attention as he was staring them down with a cold glare. The group of Slytherins felt that any movement could kill them,

"Don't_ ever _insult someone's death again, or I'll make you regret it" he stated before he went out of the great hall, the pressure vanishing.

While everyone in the hall were shocked about what happened Naruto already made his way in his training spot in the forest, but this time it wasn't for training.

"I'm an idiot" he said as he sat against a tree,

**"****No, you're just someone who finely snapped after hearing too many insults"** Kurama stated,

'It's the same'

**"****You're wrong, an idiot wouldn't have last that long. And it wasn't the fact that he insulted you or your family that made you snap, am I right?"** Naruto sighed,

'I just couldn't control myself when he insulted someone's _death_'

**"****You don't need to explain yourself kit"** Naruto chuckle softly,

'Kit? Is the big bad fox getting soft on me?' he teased,

**"****Shut up! I can't believe I was actually worried about you, stupid brat…" **Naruto couldn't help but laugh out loud.

'Thank you, Kurama' he mentally said as he calmed down, just as he said that the unicorns that now usually came to see him appeared from the other side of the clearing. They slowly walked toward him and laid down around him, the younger one put its head on Naruto's lap,

"Well I suppose I'll stay there then" he said with a soft chuckle. He passed the night there, and nearly got himself killed by Hermione when he told his friends where he slept. The Gryffindors in the common room watched the show with amusement, even Ron and Harry,

"You were _where_?" she nearly shouted, at that point Naruto was sweating a bit in fear, Hermione was usually calm and collected but now… He wondered how it was possible for her to scare him like that,

"U-um, I was in the forbidden forest, at its border of course"

"What were you thinking? Do you know how worried everybody was?"

"Hum… A lot?" he nervously asked, he knew nearly everyone in Hogwarts was worried when they heard what happened in the great hall and then he just disappeared for a full night. And judging by his friends relieved looks and Hermione's anger, they were the ones that worried the most,

"_That_ is an understatement! I swear that if you ever do something like that again I…"

"Now, Now Hermione, he is here now, he is not hurt anywhere and it might be good if you don't change that" Harry said, it managed to calm Hermione enough and Naruto shoot him a graceful look as the Gryffindors around went away to leave them alone.

"But seriously man, don't do this again" Ron said, Naruto smiled sheepishly,

"Yeah, I'll try"

"_Try?_" Hermione growled dangerously,

"I mean I won't do it anymore!" he quickly exclaimed,

**"****That's an excellent show I'm seeing, my compliments to the young witch"** Kurama exclaimed in laugher,

'I so hate you sometimes…' it was at this moment that the door of the common room opened as Neville toppled into the room, his legs stuck in the Leg-Locker curse. Hermione quickly went to him and performed the counter-curse, Neville's leg sprang apart and he got to his feet, trembling.

"What happened?" Hermione asked as she led him over to the couch where the others were sitting,

"Malfoy" he answered shakily, "I met him outside the library. He said he'd been looking for someone to practice that on"

"Go to professor McGonagall!" she urged Neville, "Report him!"

"I don't want more trouble" he mumbled,

"You've got to stand up to him, Neville!" Ron said, "He's used to walking all over people, but that's no reason to lie down in front of him and make it easier."

"There's no need to tell me I'm not brave enough to be in Gryffindor, Malfoy's already done that" Neville choked, Naruto stayed silent, knowing full well what it was to be bullied. Harry then gave Neville a chocolate frog,

"You're worth twelve of Malfoy" he said, "The sorting hat chose you for Gryffindor, didn't it? And where's Malfoy? In stinking Slytherin." Neville's lips twitched in a smile,

"Thanks Harry… I think I'll go to bed… Do you want the card, you collect them, don't you?" As Neville walked away Naruto followed him, when no one could hear them he talked,

"What Ron said, about fighting back, it's true. I know it from experience" Neville looked at him in surprise,

"You were bullied?"

"Yeah, tons of times, but I fought back, I knew it will only get worse if I didn't" Neville looked down,

"But I'm not strong enough to fight back"

"The essential is to show that you won't let them push you around that easily, bullies tend to only go after targets that don't resist. But let me ask you something, you were cursed in front of the library, right?" Neville nodded, "Then you hoped all the way to the common room?" again a nod, "You fell a lot?"

"A few times"

"Then stop looking down on yourself, I don't know a lot of people that could go all the way from the library to here with the Leg-Locker curse, Malfoy certainly wouldn't be able to do it. You are stronger than you think you are, Neville" Naruto said as he started to walk away, he stopped a moment before throwing a small box at him, "And put that on your legs, it will soothe the pain" Neville just stared at him as he made his way back to his friends.

When he sat down his friends told them about what they discovered about the philosopher's stone, and eternal life was something a lot of people would be ready to fight for. Now that they knew what was contained in Hogwarts they had to know what protections were in place, apart from the three headed dog of course. So that's why they decided to go to Hagrid's place the night.

Hagrid was nursing a precious treasure he had when he heard someone knocking on his door, he carefully opened only to find Harry, Ron, Hermione and Naruto in front of him,

"Oh hello, sorry, I don't want to be rude but I am in no fit state to entertain today" he said before closing the door,

"We know about the philosopher's stone" they said at the same time, the door reopened,

"Ok then, come in"

"We think that Snape is trying to steal it" Harry said as they sat on chairs,

"Oh, you're not still on Snape, are you? He is one of the teachers guarding the stone, he's not about to steal it" the group, minus Naruto, had shocked look on their faces. Naruto sweat-dropped,

"You seriously didn't think that a thing that important would only be guarded by one gigantic three headed dog. There are probably tons of spells and enchantments to guard the stone"

"That's right, waste of bloody time if you ask me, nobody is going to pass Fluffy. Not a soul knows how, except me and Dumbledore" he froze, "I shouldn't have told you that" he mumbled to himself. They suddenly heart something banging in a cauldron on the fire and Hagrid took what was inside, feeling the heat even with protective gloves, and put it on his table. It was an enormous egg,

"Hagrid, what is that?" Harry asked,

"I know what that is" Ron exclaimed, "But Hagrid, how did you get one?"

"I won it from a traveller I met in a pub" he answered, "He seemed quite glad to get rid of it as a matter of fact" the egg was shaking more and more until it broke, revealing the baby dragon in it, it was jet black.

"Is that, a dragon?" Hermione asked in disbelief,

"Not just any dragon, it's a Norwegian Ridgeback" Ron stated, "My brother Charlie works with these in Romania"

"Hagrid, your house is made of _wood_" Hermione said, but Hagrid didn't listen, too concentrated on the dragon in front of him, dragon who turned toward him,

"Bless him, look, he knows his mommy" he laughed as he tickled the dragon, "Hello Norbert"

"Norbert?" Harry repeated,

"Well yeah, he should have a name now, doesn't he?" Ron, Harry and Naruto stopped themselves from laughing at Hagrid's weird choice of name, Norbert then coughed some flames than ignited Hagrid's beard. He quickly put the fire out under the others perplexed gaze,

"He will have to be trained a bit of course" it was then that Hagrid noticed someone at his window, "Who's that?" he asked, the others turned around to see… Malfoy, who then took off running.

They made their way back to the castle only to be intercepted by McGonagall, Malfoy next to them,

"Well, seems like we are in trouble now" Naruto said,

"Follow me" the teacher said. She led them to her office and started to lecture them,

"Nothing, and I repeat, nothing allows a student to walk around at night" Malfoy stood apart from the group, smiling at their lecture, "And as punishment for your action, fifty points will be taken"

"Fifty" Harry exclaimed in disbelief,

"Each" she stated, Naruto stayed calm through this,

_"__It's our fault, nothing we can do about it"_

"And to be sure it will never happen again, all five of you will receive detention" she continued, Naruto smiled at that while Malfoy took a puzzled expression,

"Excuse me professor, perhaps I heard you wrong? I thought you said, the five of us"

"No you heard me correctly Mr. Malfoy. You see, as honourable your intentions were, you too were out of bed after hours. You will join your classmates in detention" Malfoy was mortified at that as the others smiled at that.

The next night they were led by Filch toward Hagrid's house while he talked about old punishment methods, all more horrible than the last one, and Naruto suspected some of them to be completely invented to scare them. When they arrived they saw Hagrid coming out,

"You will be serving detention with Hagrid tonight" Filch started, "He's got a little job to do, inside the dark forest" when they were close enough they saw the sad look on Hagrid's face, "Oh good god man, you're not still not on about that dragon, are you?"

"Norbert's gone, Dumbledore sent him in a colony in Romania"

"Well that's good, no? He will be with his own kind" Hermione said to calm him,

"But what if he doesn't like Romania? What if the other dragons are mean to him?" Filch rolled his eyes as Hagrid complained,

"Oh for god's sake pull yourself together man, you're going in the forest after all. Got to have your wits about, yeah?"

"The forest? I thought that was a joke" Malfoy exclaimed, "We can't go in there, students aren't allowed. And there are…" they heard a howl in the distance, "Werewolves" Naruto sighed loudly,

"And since when detentions are supposed to be pleasant? And there is more than werewolves in this forest, I can assure you of that" Filch smiled,

"You seem to know your subject well, huh? Well then, have a good night" he said before walking away.

Hagrid led them in the forest for a while until they found something on the floor, it was a shining silver liquid, and it smelled of blood.

"Hagrid, what is that?" Harry asked,

"What we are here for" he answered, "See that? That's unicorn blood" Naruto froze in shock, and he could understand why. After the boy got this close to unicorns, he had all the rights to be angered at whatever attacked some, "I found one dead a few weeks ago, and this one got hurt bad by something" Naruto tensed up, all his senses in full alert, "So it's our job to find the poor beast. Ron, Hermione, you come with me"

"Ok" Ron weakly said,

"Harry, Malfoy, you go with Naruto"

"Ok, then I get Fang" Malfoy bargained,

"Fine, but just so you know, he's a bloody coward" Malfoy's face fell before Harry and him looked at the dog, but Naruto was at the end of his patience,

"Then let's move already!" He exclaimed the others, except Hagrid, looked at him in shock, not expecting this outburst. But he was already on his way and Harry and Malfoy had to run a bit to catch up to him. They walked for a while, and Malfoy complained all the way,

"Wait till my father hears about this, this is servants stuff"

"That's enough!" Naruto exclaimed, making Malfoy jump a bit, "I swear to every god that can exist that if you don't stop complaining I'm going to knock you out, am I _clear_?"

"If I didn't know better, I would say he is scared" Harry said,

"Scared, Potter?" Malfoy scoffed at that, or tried to, at least. They walked for a while until they heard a panicked neigh, Naruto didn't think twice to ran toward the source of the noise, Harry, Malfoy and Fang following closely behind. What they saw filled everyone with fear except for Naruto, as he only felt hatred at the scene: A black caped figure that seemed to glide making its way toward a wounded unicorn. Naruto recognized this unicorn, it was one of the young ones, and its back was wounded. Malfoy let out a scream as he ran away with Fang, making the cloaked figure turn their way, and when it did Harry put a hand on his scar as he moaned in pain. The caped creature barely had the time to dodge Naruto's attack, he was covered in blue chakra and the ground where the creature stood was slightly cracked. Naruto had a look of pure fury on his face,

"Just so you know, I will kill you for what you did to this unicorn" Naruto charged at the creature again but it dodged, although barely, again. But this time there was a green ray of light that made its way toward Naruto and hit him. When Naruto was touched by the curse he felt all his pressure points closing instantly,

_"__What… is that?"_ he thought before everything went black.

Naruto was falling into darkness, there was nothing around, no lights, no noises, just the dark,

"Where am I?" he asked weakly as he kept falling, "So dark… So cold… So lonely…" he then began to panic, moving around in the darkness but nothing changed, he was still falling. "No, I don't want that, I don't want to be alone anymore!" he started to cry, "Somebody, help me…" he whispered and a ray of light appeared before it engulfed everything.

Naruto suddenly opened his eyes and stood up while screaming, startling Hermione who was next to him with a tear strained face. Before she could react, Naruto buried his head on her shoulder and cried, she stood still for a moment not knowing what to do, before she hugged him tightly, as if she was scared that he would disappear if she let go of him. When Naruto calmed down he noticed they were still in the forest, and apart from Hermione there was Hagrid, Ron, Harry who all had tears on their face as well as a look of pure happiness, a centaur and the wounded unicorn, that now had a new cut on one of its front leg. And that's when he noticed the taste in his mouth, the taste of blood. He immediately let go of Hermione and touched his mouth, when he looked at his hand he saw that they was indeed some blood on it, silver one.

"What… What happened?" he asked shakenly,

"When you charged that thing, it threw a curse at you… And you died" Harry started nervously,

"I guessed that much, but what happened after? Why am I alive?"

"I don't really know, after you died this thing went close to me but Firenze, the centaur, sent it away. When it was gone the others came and the unicorn used its horn to cut its leg and made you drink some of its blood. And here we are…"

"But, is that even possible? To bring somebody back from death, I mean?" Naruto asked in disbelief,

"It is if one use a unicorn's blood, but that person will life a cursed life, a half-life" started Firenze, "But not in your case because this unicorn gave you its blood willingly"

"Wh-What?"

"A unicorn can save one life that was lost recently by giving willingly its blood. But this is a sacred pact, this unicorn just announced to every creature that it thought that you were worthy of being given a second chance in life." The centaur explained, making Naruto look at the unicorn in shock,

"You saved me?" he smiled, "Thank you" the unicorn bowed its head before it walked away, Firenze said goodbye before following the unicorn.

"So, you are sure you are all right, Naruto?" Hagrid asked,

"Yeah, I think… Maybe… not…" he said as fell unconscious when the tiredness of coming back to life came to him.

When he woke up he found himself in the hospital wing,

_"__Just great"_ he though,

**"****Shut up, you scared me to death when you collapsed again damn brat!"**

'Kurama? I'm glad to hear you again, I was worried when you were silent after I came back to life'

**"****It was you who asked that I refrain from talking when you are in a conversation as to not give you headache"**

'Come on, there's an exception to everything you know' Naruto said in exasperation, they could have talked longer but they were interrupted by Dumbledore coming in the room. When the old wizard saw the whiskered student awake he smiled,

"I'm glad to see you awake Naruto" he said kindly but Naruto had some questions and they was no way they will go unanswered.

"Thanks, but I have some questions. First, how long was I unconscious?"

"A week…"

"What!" Naruto shouted, getting the attention of Madam Pomfrey,

"God, you are finely awake and already shouting? If this continues I will have to force you to leave professor" she warned Dumbledore,

"No, I'm sorry. I was just a bit shocked that I was out for one week…" Naruto apologized, making her go back to her office, "ok, next question: Is the philosopher's stone well-guarded?" that took the headmaster by surprise,

"How do you know about it?"

"Not relevant, your answer?" Dumbledore sighed,

"Yes it is, and before you ask: no, we have no idea who was the one that attacked you and there doesn't seems to be any attacks of unicorns any more" this time it was Naruto that sighed, but in relief. "Now you might not like the fact that you missed the final exams so you will have to catch up when you are ready" Naruto sweat-dropped at that.

Because of the exams, Naruto didn't have the time to see his friends, all he did all day long were written exams, which he did fairly well in his opinion, and practical exams were he nearly aced all of them. It was late at night when he finished and he was making his way toward the common room when he sharply turned around with a kunai drawn and in a fighting stance, making three voices gasp from seemingly nowhere. Harry, Ron and Hermione then suddenly appeared in front of him, Harry holding a thin cape,

"Glad to see you awake, Naruto" he said with a smile, "But how did you know we were behind?"

"The smell" they stared at him in shock,

"Do we really smell that bad?" Ron asked, making Naruto chuckle,

"Not at all, my straightened senses are just a bonus from having Kurama sealed in me for so long. But where are you going that needs you to conceal yourselves?" they looked nervously around them,

"We are going to take the stone before Snape"

"So the thief is trying this tonight, huh? I'm going with you" they looked at him worriedly,

"But you just woke up from…" started Hermione but was interrupted by Naruto's glare,

"I got plenty of rest and there is no way in hell that I am going to let my friends risk their lives without doing anything" he said seriously before making his way toward the room where Fluffy was in, closely followed by his friends in the invisibility cloak.

When they arrived they saw that the giant dog was asleep, a harp gently playing a tune.

"We're late" Naruto stated, the others went to open the trap and Harry was saying something but Naruto wasn't paying attention as he noticed the music stopped, and Fluffy was slowly waking up.

_"__Not good, not good at all"_ he though as he silently walked toward his friends to suddenly shove them in the hole with him, they screamed as they fell but landed on a plant that stopped them, above them the three headed giant dog was barking violently.

"What the hell was that for?" Ron exclaimed,

"The fall that might harm you or the giant dog that _will_ kill you, your choice?"

"Ok, I didn't say anything, thanks"

"No problem"

"Yes we have a problem, look at you!" Hermione shouted as she went away from the plant, plant that was starting to bind them and making its way toward their throats"

"Well shit!" Naruto said, "Devil's snare" next to him Ron was panicking, "Great, it's really good to know what will kill me!" he shouted,

"Shut up, I'm trying to remember how to kill it" Hermione said,

"Well hurry up, I can't breathe" Harry stated as the plant was tightening around him,

"Devi's snare, devil's snare… What did professor Sprout say? It likes the dark and the damp…"

"So light a fire" Naruto and Harry both said together,

"Yes of course, but there's no wood!" Hermione cried, wringing her hands,

"Have you gone mad, are you a witch or not?" Ron shouted,

"Oh, right" she said as whipped out her wand, waved it, muttered something and sent a jet of blue flames at the plant. In a matter of seconds, the plant loosened its grip as it cringed away from the light and warmth, letting the boys free.

"Lucky you two pay attention in herbology" Harry said,

"Yeah, and lucky Harry and Naruto doesn't lose their heads in a crisis, _there's no wood_, honestly" Ron added. As they walked deeper, all they could hear apart their footstep was the water dripping from the walls. They soon came into a room with nothing except a ray of moonlight at the centre of the room and a door at the back, Naruto didn't like this,

"Stay behind me" he said, "It's too calm, there have to be some kind of trap somewhere" they walked cautiously but when they got close to the middle of the room a shadow took form in the ray of light. It was a perfect replica of Naruto but in shadow form and it took a kunai out as went in a fighting stance, not moving.

"So this is as far as we go, huh?" Naruto stated calmly, "Harry, Ron, Hermione… Go on, I'll catch up to you when I'm done with this"

"What?" they exclaimed, "We can't leave you like that and…"

"And what? You're going to let someone just steal the stone? If that happens then it's over and you all know it so just go!" he snapped, making his friends obey reluctantly. As they tried to pass the shadow rushed to attack but was intercepted by Naruto, "What are you doing? Run!" they started to run as the shadow tried to run after them but stopped to dodge an attack from Naruto, "Sorry but you will have to play with me" he said with a grin as his friends passed the door. The shadow and Naruto stared at each other for a moment before they charged at each other. They exchanged blows at great speed for a while until Naruto managed to slice a bit the shadow's cheek, at the same moment he felt pain in his right cheek and he jumped away.

_"__Did it touch me at the same time?"_ he asked himself as he touched his cheek to see no blood, his eyes widened in realisation, _"You're freaking kidding me? This shadow has the same fighting strength than me and I will feel the damage I put on it? Bloody hell, this is going to be annoying"_ he thought before he charged once again. They traded blows until Naruto took his wand out,

"**_incendio_**" he shouted as a jet of orange and red sparks went out of his wand and hit the shadow on its left shoulder, burning it. Naruto felt the pain of being burnt until the shadow easily set the fire off,

_"__This bastard, to just put out the fire as if it was nothing…"_

**"****Naruto, if my guess is correct this is a shadow created by magic"**

'Thanks captain obvious'

**"****My point is, it looks like it is made to imitate your level in physical and magical aspect, but magicians can't use chakra so…"** Naruto's eyes widen as the realisation hit him,

'Of course, he won't be able to use jutsus! Thanks Kurama'

**"****Just what will you do without me?"** the fox mumbled as Naruto quickly made hand signs,

"**_Fire style: Big fireball_**" he shouted as an enormous fireball came out of his mouth, only to dissipate when it collided with a similar ball of fire,

'…'

**"…"**

'You're freaking telling me it can also use jutsus that use chakra? Just what the hell is going on?' he mentally exclaimed as he tried this jutsu again, only to meet the same result, they fought for a while, both throwing spells, weapons and jutsus to the other but the shadow was still at top strength while Naruto slowly grew tired.

'God dammit!'

**"****Calm down Naruto, I think I know what's going on"** Kurama said as Naruto dodged several shurikens,

'Then what are you waiting for?'

**"****It is made by magic to imitate you and all your techniques, even chakra based ones, but it can only use magic to imitate them. So basically, when you use jutsus even if they counter each other you actually have a slight edge"** Naruto grinned at that,

'Great, now I know how I'll beat this bastard' he exclaimed as he threw three kunais that the clone blocked, before he activated the exploding tags on them. The pain he felt in his left arm told him he managed to harm the shadow, he then took advantage of the smoke created by the blast to gather his chakra in his arm. The smoke cleared, revealing the shadow as Naruto finished his preparations: on his right arm there were two spiral of chakra, one red and one blue, spun in opposite directions.

"Try to copy this!" Naruto taunted as the two spirals turned into flames, surrounding his arm completely, burning him. The shadow answered to his taunt by doing the same, increasing Naruto's pain before they charged each other one last time.

"**_Double spiral: dragon's fist_**" he exclaimed as their attacks collided, the sheer power shaking the ground near them as flames rages around them in a battle for dominance. The shadow resisted but it couldn't keep up with the original jutsu, Naruto just gave one last push, breaking the shadow's attack and consume it entirely in flames. Naruto screamed in pain as he felt the feeling of being consumed by flames, and he fell unconscious with several cuts all over his body and his right arm deeply burned.

When he woke up in the hospital wing there were only two things in his mind:

_"__Not again…"_ and _"Bloody hell it hurts!"_ every part of his body hurt like hell, he was feeling as if he was roasted alive, he groaned a bit,

"Naruto?" he heard a girls voice ask,

"Hermione?" he sat up and sure enough, Hermione was there, before he could say anything she hugged him, making him blush,

"Hermione, what are you…"

"Shut up" she ordered, "I'm just happy to see you alive. Seriously, what's with you and your recklessness?" he awkwardly stroked her back to calm her down,

"Well, let's just say I'm happy you weren't in here when I fought" she stood up and looked into his eyes,

"Why?"

"This shadow, it was made to imitate all of the abilities of somebody, it could use all of my spells, was as physically strong as me and could even imitate my ninja techniques. Basically, if any of you were here I would have to defend you and that would've probably killed us all"

"Wait, it could imitate techniques requiring chakra? But I fought that…"

"Yeah it's exactly what I said, imitate but not recreate. It could only use magic so it used it to imitate those techniques but couldn't keep up with the originals, magic cannot be used the same way than chakra after all. But more importantly, how long was I unconscious?"

"You are not asking if we managed to get the stone?" she asked in confusion, Naruto smiled,

"Simple logic, if you failed, we would've been dead so yeah, I'm not asking something I already know" Hermione looked at him in shock,

_"__He speaks of death so easily…"_ she cleared her throat, "You and Harry were unconscious for three days"

"Ah, you answered my next question… Where's Harry?"

"He woke up before you, in fact it is nearly the end of year feast" Naruto sighed in relief,

"I made it in time" he said with a grin, making Hermione and Kurama to sweat-drop. After they talked a bit, mainly about how lucky Naruto was to be able to heal this fast, a fact that he couldn't thank Kurama enough for it. Hermione then took her out of the hospital wing to bring him out of the feast, even though they had to fight a bit with madam Pomfrey for this. When they finely entered the great hall, students were already sitting down in the hall decorated in Slytherin colours. Naruto spoke with his friends while waiting for the feast to start and when Dumbledore arrived everyone fell silent.

"Another year gone" he said cheerfully, Naruto didn't really paid attention to his speech until he talked about the house cup, "Now, as I understand it, the House Cup here needs awarding and the points stand thus: in fourth place, Gryffindor, with two hundred and sixty-two points; in third, Hufflepuff, with three hundred and fifty-two; Ravenclaw have four hundred and twenty-six and Slytherin, four hundred and seventy-two." A storm of cheering and stamping broke out from the Slytherin table, "Yes, yes, well done Slytherin" said Dumbledore, "However, recent events must be taken into account" the room went very still and Naruto smiled as he saw the Slytherins smiles fade a little. "Ahem" Dumbledore started, "First, to Mr Ronald Weasley" Ron went purple in the face, "… for the best-played game of chess Hogwarts has seen in many years, I award Gryffindor house fifty points" Gryffindor cheers nearly raised the bewitched ceiling; Percy could be heard praising his younger brother. When they were silence again Dumbledore continued, "Second, to Miss Hermione Granger, for the use of cool logic in the face of fire, I award Gryffindor house fifty points" Hermione buried her face in her arms, Naruto could smell her tears but let her alone as he knew they were tears of joy.

"Third, to Mr Naruto Uzumaki, for never hesitating to protect his friends even if it have to consume him, I award Gryffindor house fifty points" Again the Gryffindor members cheered loudly, praising him and some of them giving him friendly slap on his back, "Fourth, to Mr Harry Potter" the room went deadly quiet, "… for pure nerve and outstanding courage, I award Gryffindor house sixty points" the din was deafening, especially for Naruto. Those you could add up while yelling themselves hoarse knew that Gryffindor now had the exact same points than the Slytherins, now if only Dumbledore had given Harry just one more point… Dumbledore raised his hand, the room gradually fell silent, "Even though it takes a great deal of courage to stand up to your enemy, it takes even more to stand up to your friends. I therefore award ten points to Mr Neville Longbottom" when he finished all hell broke loose, or at least that was what Naruto thought as he cheered for Neville while praying that he won't go deaf after that. Neville disappeared under a pile of people hugging him as the Slytherins look horrified, "Which mean" Dumbledore continued, "we need a little change in decoration" he clapped his hands. In an instant, the green hangings became scarlet and the silver became gold; the huge Slytherin serpent vanished and a towering Gryffindor lion took its place. Naruto saw Snape shake McGonagall's hand with a horrible fake smile and he took in the scene in front of him as much as much as he could, for he knew that this instant in the great hall would be one of his best memory in his life.

When the exams results were out Naruto and his friends were happy to find that they all passed, Hermione having the top marks, closely followed by Naruto. Even Neville passed, a fact that he praised the young wizard of to give him more confidence in himself. And finely the time of going came, all students got a letter reminding them that they shouldn't use magic in their holiday, but Naruto also received another letter authorising him to use his spells due to his circumstances. He said goodbye to his friends at the train station before he was sent home via a portkey. His friends didn't know but he will have another exam this summer, the chunin exam, and he couldn't wait to show his village how much he changed.

**A/N: Finely finished this chapter! Good grief, that was difficult. Well, I have to ask you a few things: As you can see I put the name of Naruto's jutsus in English, but what do you think of it? Would you prefer that I put them in their original name and translate them at the end of the chapter (except for Jutsus that I created myself as I wouldn't know how to write them in Japanese)? Also, if you have any ideas or advice to help me writing fights I will be glad to hear them, I'm always happy to learn new things. Well then, I hope you enjoyed and see you next chapter ^^**


	7. Chapter 7

The tale of the ninja wizard

Chapter 7: The return home and the start of a new test

**A/N: Hey guys, I'm back with a new chapter. I would say sorry for the wait but you should know how I work by now so we will just skip it in the future (but I'm still sorry). Now for one of the chapters that will stress me the most: the chunin exam. I will warn you now: the first part of the exam (the written test) will be exactly the same so I won't go into details in it. And since nobody answered, I thought about what would be the best for the jutsus names and I decided to bring them all in English as to not create a difference between the canon jutsus and the ones I will create except for a few cases like the ****_Rasengan_****. Well now that's all said and done, let's go to the story!**

Disclaimer: If I owned Naruto or Harry Potter this story would have never existed.

"Dialogue"

_"Thoughts"_

'Mental dialogue'

**"Kurama dialogue"**

**_"_****_Kurama thoughts"_**

"**_Spells and jutsus_**"

After a now familiar and weird portkey travel, Naruto arrived in the Hokage's office with all his stuff and his trusted phoenix Amaterasu. Hiruzen smiled when he saw his surrogate grandson appear in front of him wearing the white T-shirt, black sweat-shirt and blue jeans he had when he departed to Hogwarts.

"Welcome back Naruto" he said with a warm smile that Naruto shared,

"I'm home" simple words, but for Naruto, as an orphan, it meant a lot. "So, what happened while I wasn't here old man?"

"Well quite a lot actually, your team was stuck doing D-ranked missions because you weren't there and I lost count of the number of times they tried to get me to tell them where you were" Naruto chuckled,

"I'm so gonna get killed by them for this"

"I wouldn't think that, in fact your prolonged absences worries them a bit"

"They do?" he asked in shock while the old ninja chuckled at his reaction,

"Of course, it was more evident on your pink haired teammate but even the Uchiha at least wondered where you go every time, although I fear it's more because they want to do C-ranked missions than because they miss you" Naruto smiled sadly,

"Yeah, I already know that they don't like me. Well except for our sensei… The only one that appreciates me in my team is a pervert, just how creepy can it be?" Hiruzen laughed loudly at that,

"True, but they aren't the only ones that wondered where you went. I recall the young Tenten asked about your whereabouts"

"She did?" he asked in surprise, he knew Tenten from the time he was at the orphanage. The one year older girl always helped and supported him despite the staff that was doing all they could to separate them, that they succeeded in throwing him out when he was five years old. Since then they didn't have a chance to meet up, even at the academy the teachers, warned by the orphanage staff, always found a way to stop the two of them to meet up. Basically it was years since the last time he saw his surrogate older sister.

"What team is she in?" Naruto asked,

"Team nine is currently training at their training ground, and don't worry about your baggage: I will have someone bring them to your home" he said while he wrote something on a piece of paper that he gave him, "and here's your new address" Naruto's eyebrow rose slightly at that,

"I suppose the villagers had a party at my old apartment?" the old Kage's face was shadowed as he answered,

"They thought that it was a good idea to warm themselves with a big fire, the fools must have hoped that you will leave if they did this. I already arrested those that did this, on another note it gave me the opportunity to give you a new apartment. A bigger and nicer apartment payed by those same people as an apology" he finished with a bright chuckle that Naruto shared,

"The civilian council must have gone bald from that" Naruto said, barely containing his laugher,

"They nearly did. And you don't have to worry about it being burnt since it's in the ninja blocks. And your new neighbours might be too much for them"

"What do you mean by that?" Naruto asked but the Hokage just winked at him,

"Now you should go or you will miss your friend" Naruto was going to go but stooped to ask a last question,

"And for the 'you know what' announcement?" Sarutobi smiled,

"The authorities of both worlds made contact and talked about the different issues, and your particular case. I will tell you the details later but I assure you that the public will know before the chunin exam." Naruto nodded before he went out of the office.

He walked in the direction of training ground number nine, with the usual glares and occasional insults that he strangely noticed were a bit less oppressive, but just a little so he shrugged it off. When he arrived he saw team nine training and decided to wait and observe. The team was composed of their jonin sensei Might Guy, a muscular man with a bowl haircut, huge eyebrows and wearing a bright green spandex. There was also a mini Guy named Rock Lee that looked and wore the same thing; a dark brown hair guy with completely pale eyes, sign he was a Hyuga, called Negi and wearing a khaki shirt, brown pants, blue shinobi sandal and had bandages wrapped around his right arm and leg. And finely the last member of the team: Tenten, dark brown hair and eyes, she wears her hair in Chinese-style buns on either side of her head with short fringe-bangs falling on her forehead protector, a pink, sleeveless qipao-style blouse with red trimmings, dark green pants and blue shinobi sandals. Naruto looked as the group spared in groups of two: Lee versus Guy and Negi versus Tenten. Lee and Guy were only using pure taijutsu but it wasn't this fight that interested Naruto, he looked at Negi and Tenten and saw she had trouble trying to keep her distance against Negi. She threw weapons after weapons at an incredible rate but Negi deflected them very easily with the help of his byakugan and it wasn't long before he managed to go at close range and finish the fight. Coincidently Guy and Lee finished their spar at the same time, it was then that they noticed him, well, that Lee, Negi and Guy noticed him as Tenten was busy picking up her numerous weapons from the ground,

"Hello, why did you come here young man?" their sensei asked energetically, making Naruto cringe slightly at his loud voice,

"Um, I just came to see Tenten, it's been years since we last saw each other after all" he answered calmly. Tenten gasped when she turned to look at him,

"Naruto, is that you?" he smiled sheepishly while rubbing the back of his head,

"It's been a while, huh, Tenten nee-san?" Lee's jaw fell at that and Negi raised an eyebrow while Tenten quickly ran toward Naruto and brought him in a bone crushing hug,

"Sister?" Lee exclaimed in shock, just as loud as his sensei,

"Tenten, you didn't tell me that you supported a younger brother with your flame of youth!" Guy shouted, which Naruto started to assume was normal for him,

"What the hell is the 'flame of youth'?" Naruto whispered to Tenten who broke the hug,

"No idea, most of the time it doesn't make any sense" she answered in a whisper, she took a step back and, ignoring perfectly her team behind her, examined Naruto's appearance. "You look good, Naruto. What happened to the orange eyesore I often heard about?" Naruto looked embarrassed,

"Well… I still have it and wear it"

"You can't be serious? I only saw it from far away but even then I found it horrible. And seriously, bright orange for a ninja? Do you want to wear a 'kill me' sign with it?" she said in disbelief mixed with slight exasperation before she turned toward the jonin, "Guy-sensei, can I have the rest of the day off? I know training is important but it's been such a long time since we saw each other…" Guy grinned and shot a thumb up,

"No worries, I know how bright your flames of youth shines when you train so you can go and catch the lost time with your youthful younger brother!" he exclaimed. Tenten thanked him before she quickly dragged Naruto away. They walked for a while, Tenten talking about what her life was like since the day Naruto was kicked out of the orphanage, she was in the orphanage until she was adopted by Higarashi Tatsuhiro, a renowned weapon maker, became a gennin and decided to become a great kunoichi. Naruto was happy that even though it has been years their relationship didn't really change.

"And you? What happened to you after you were out of the orphanage?" Naruto started to sweat a bit, wondering what he should tell her but he recovered soon enough,

"Well, I lived in the streets for a little while…"

"How long?" she asked sternly,

"Approximately one month" he answered wearily, she had a shocked look on her face,

"How the hell could they do this to you, you were just a kid god dammit!" she nearly shouted, Naruto put a hand on her shoulder to calm her, even if it didn't really work.

"I have a lot of things I want to tell you but it will have to wait until we are in my new apartment"

"New?" she asked in confusion, "What happened to your old one?"

"The villagers were cold" he simply said, and as soon as the word escaped him he felt killing intent coming from Tenten, all of it directed towards the villagers around them. Naruto tried to calm her down, saying that his apartment was barely better than an old dump and this 'accident' gave him a nicer apartment for free. They talked for a while, mostly Tenten as Naruto couldn't say out in the streets that he was a wizard. He had planned to tell everything to Tenten as he still considered her as his older sister and as such deserved to know all of his secrets, even if she might never speak to him again. They arrived in front of a big building painted in light blue, the ninja apartments. Naruto led Tenten to his apartment, the number 305 and opened the door. The apartment wasn't very big but for Naruto it was enormous, and it was clean. They stood in the little entryway, in front of them was the living room with a wood table and four chairs, at its left was the kitchen, a bathroom at its right and a hallway with two doors that Naruto guessed were bedrooms. Naruto's baggage lay in a corner of the living room with Amaterasu perched on his suitcase, when she saw Naruto she immediately flew to his shoulder and rubbed her head against him. Tenten looked in amazement at the phoenix as Naruto petted it,

"I never saw a bird this beautiful, what is it?"

"A phoenix" he answered as he went to sit down on a chair, motioning her to do the same. Once she sat down she continued,

"No, for real what is this bird?"

"I'm not joking" he answered seriously, making her look at him in disbelief,

"Um, Naruto I'm pretty sure they are just legends" she said with worry in her eyes that made Naruto chuckle but before he could answer he heard a knock on his door. He opened it only to see a huge snake in front of him, he instinctively jumped back and threw some shuriken that he soaked in a paralysing poison. The shuriken didn't miss their target and the snake immediately fell on the ground, unable to move. Naruto took a kunai and was ready to kill the snake when it disappeared in a puff of smoke, the shuriken falling on the ground.

"Not bad kid, you pass" said a voice he recognised instantly and his eyes widened,

"Anko nee-san!" he exclaimed with a bright smile as she showed herself at the door with a smirk on her face. Naruto knew Anko since he was thrown out of the orphanage, when the hokage found this he assigned an Anbu squad to protect him and she was one of them, she often came to keep him company when he felt lonely and he considered her as family.

"Hey there kid, it's been a while since I last saw you. Where the hell were you?" Naruto motioned for her to come and sit down which she complied. He went to sit opposite them, Amaterasu on his shoulder, and stared straight at them.

"What do you know about magic?"

"It's just a fairy tale for kids" they both replied at the same time with the same look of confusion on their faces, Naruto mentally braced himself.

"What if I tell you it's not? And let me finish before you start panicking about my sanity" he said when he saw the look in their eyes, he then started to explain everything that happened to him from the day the owl brought him the acceptance letter to today and punctuated it with concrete evidence by using a few harmless spells. At the end of his explanation they had a dumbfounded look on them,

"Wow, that is bloody insane" Anko finely said before she smirked, "So my little Ototo is a wizard, heh? I always knew you were weird"

"Nee-san" he exclaimed in exasperation before he glanced at a still shocked Tenten,

"Well, that is a lot to take in" she admitted, "But I guess Anko-san is right, you were always weird" she said with a playful smile that made Naruto whine a bit,

"Not you too…" they laughed at him and when they calmed down they was another knock at the door. Naruto opened it to see the Hokage,

"Ah, Ji-san!"

"Hello again Naruto, I see you have guest over" he stated as he sat on a chair, followed by Naruto while Anko and Tenten, startled by the hokage's casual appearance were standing up to greet him with a bow. Seeing this Hiruzen chuckled and dismissed their formal greeting with a wave of his hand.

"There is no need to act this formal here" they sat down reluctantly,

"They know about my particular situation" Hiruzen raised an eyebrow in amusement,

"And I thought you were good to keep secrets"

"You already planned to reveal this to all the elemental country and I don't want to keep any secret from them" he responded seriously, making the others smile.

"I suppose I shall tell you about the situation between the wizard and ninja worlds and your new privileges" he started as he took a serious tone, "First, as you can guess, it wasn't easy to keep things from blowing up at the governments meeting. A majority of the wizards think we are barbarians because of our very different living style and our unfortunately frequent wars and ninjas will tend to think they are lazy fools and hypocrites incapable to defend themselves as proven by their recent civil war."

"Woah, must have been more of a time bomb than a meeting" Naruto stated,

"Indeed it was at the beginning but we finished by accepting the fact that we are from _really_ different backgrounds. That said we talked about how we could create peace between our two worlds until we finely talked about your case. To say it was a difficult subject would be an understatement: the wizards wanted to, and I quote, 'take an innocent child from a path of barbary'. You can guess that we didn't really appreciate that" he said as he saw the shocked and angry look on Naruto's face. "Now, after a long negotiation about what would be the best for you Albus and I finely managed bring them to let you choose your path. Hence the privileges that I mentioned: you are a special case, someone between the ninja and the wizard world and it would be foolish to make you choose a side, so we decided that you will have a special status in both worlds."

"What do you mean by 'special status'?" Naruto asked,

"Because of ninjas frequent wars and fight for power and ambitious wizard government we decided to give you an ambassador status in both worlds" Naruto, Anko and Tenten gaped at that,

"A-A what now?"

"An ambassador" his surrogate grandfather said with a slight chuckle, "You are a link between the two worlds and as such laws will have some changes, after all we can't have you in a wizards prison if you had to kill someone in a mission, and you can use your spells despite the fact you are a student in the wizard world. But you are not exempt of laws, you are a ninja of Konoha and as such all our laws applies to you, the wizards laws just have to adjust itself to you, not the other way round. You also don't have to worry about your security since you will be protected by the entire elemental country and the wizard world"

"Wait, if I'm protected by everyone I won't be able to considered only as a ninja of Konoha" Naruto said in panic, making Hiruzen sigh,

"That's right, Naruto. You can't support only a ninja village but you can take missions here, it's just that you can't take a mission that tells you to kill a ninja from another village. But you will also be able to go to any hidden village as you wish and take missions in them, you will also be the mediator between ninjas and wizards." he finished, Naruto sighed as he buried his face in his hands.

"This is a huge mess" he said, earning concerned glances from Anko and Tenten,

"I know it will be a difficult role to endorse" started the old ninja, "But it is an opportunity to make our two worlds to work together, it is a chance to bring peace and not only between the two worlds. I believe that one day you could bring peace to the elemental nations" he said with a smile,

"You really think I could do this?" Naruto asked,

"Not now, but I know that one day you will be able to" Naruto smiled,

"Thanks jiji" Hiruzen then got up,

"Well then I should be going, I have my eternal enemy to fight, also known as paper work" Naruto chuckled and said goodbye. He talked with his two guests for the rest of the day, getting teased along the way on various subjects before they left, letting Naruto to tidy up his new apartment.

It's been one weak since he was back in his village. A week he spent training as much as he could with his two teammates that seems to hate his guts, especially after the Hokage announced to the whole village about magic and his… particular position. Now the villagers weren't pleased by it as it meant they couldn't attack the 'demon' anymore, a feeling shared by a minority of ninjas. This also meant he could use magic freely in public, a fact that infuriated his teammates, Sasuke hated him because the 'drop out' had a power that should be _his_ as only he would be able to use it at its full potential and Sakura hated him because _Naruto_, of all people, had a power that should belong to her _Sasuke-kun_ and that he had a special social status that protected him. Both totally ignoring the fact that it wasn't Naruto's fault and that he never asked for any of this. At the end of the week they discovered their sensei put them in the chunin exam, but on their way toward where the first part of the exam will be held they were called out by someone about a year older than them wearing a green spandex, Rock Lee. Naruto was internally glad that Tenten and Anko dragged him to by some decent clothes, he was now wearing a black jacket with the hood down, black pants and a burned orange facemask that will cover the bottom part of his face up to his nose if he put it up, no matter what he will still have some orange on him somewhere. While he reflected on this the green wearing gennin was walking toward them, more specifically him,

"Good to see you Uzumaki Naruto" he greeted energetically,

"Hi, Lee. What do you want?"

"I heard from Tenten that you were a hard worker like me and I wanted to test my flame of youth with yours!" he exclaimed loudly, making Sakura look at him weirdly and Sasuke grit his teeth,

"If you want a challenge then you shouldn't ask this dropout, he wouldn't last a second against me" he sneered, Lee looked at him in disdain,

"If there is one thing I am confident with is my ability to sense my opponent's worth, and I'm sure Naruto, a hard worker, will be far more challenging that somebody like you who doesn't put much effort in his training because he think is the best" he answered bluntly, annoying the Uchiha who then tried to punch Lee, only for him to dodge and punch him hard in the face, sending him flying a few meters away.

"What the hell was that?" He shouted, "Tell me what jutsu you used and how I couldn't see it with my sharingan" Sasuke ordered,

"It was just pure taijutsu" answered Naruto with a sweat-drop before turning toward Lee, "I'm sorry but if we might be late for the exam but I will gladly fight you after the exam, or during it if the occasion present itself" Lee had a large grin on his face,

"Yosh, I will await the occasion to burn our flames of youth in a most youthful spar!" he exclaimed before running away, probably toward his teammates.

"What… the hell was that?" Sakura asked in a sweat-drop, before being angry, "And who is this guy to think he is better than Sasuke-kun" Naruto resisted the urge to facepalm, choosing to go in the building instead. When he arrived he noticed a group of people standing in front of room 301, the room they were supposed to go to but something didn't add up: They were not at the right floor. Naruto planned to calmly walk away but it proved itself impossible when Sasuke arrogantly called out the genjutsu placed on the room, allowing people who clearly weren't qualified to pass the exam to take it either way.

"Are you an idiot?" shouted a kunoichi Naruto knew too well, "That was obviously part of the test, if they couldn't tell it was a genjutsu they don't stand a chance in the exam!" she scolded the Uchiha, before anything could be told Naruto intervened,

"I'm sorry for the comportment of my teammate" he said to the two 'gennin' guarding the door to the false test room,

"No need to worry, Naruto" said one of them as a puff of smoke revealed him as a chunin,

"Things like that happens from time to time" said his colleague as he too reappeared in a puff of smoke, they were two chunin that knew Naruto well as they often had to chase him after some of his pranks. Naruto turned toward his teammates and Tenten's team,

"So, I suppose we should go before we are late?" he half-asked half-stated before going.

The first part of the exam was… emotionally challenging to say the least. It was a written test with a man named Ibiki as a proctor, a man he knew from Anko as he was her superior in the T&amp;I division saw he knew that this man was a master of all types of tortures. After he managed to inspire the rest of the gennins that was ready to give up as did many before them, the proctor of the second test presented herself. A bundle of cloth broke the window only to be pinned open by several kunais, showing 'The incredible Mitarashi Anko is here!' written on it before the woman in question appeared a second after. She presented herself energetically, making everyone sweat-drop except Naruto who just had a smile on his face. A smile he kept even as the gennins were brought in front of a huge forest behind tall wire fences.

"Welcome to the stage for the second test: training ground 44, also known as the forest of death" Anko said with a smirk that Naruto mirrored, attracting the attention of Sakura and Tenten, who was nearby,

"Why are you smiling you idiot?" she asked harshly, only to have a kunai next to her throat, courtesy of Tenten,

"Don't. Insult. Him." She ordered coldly, "But I also want to know why you were smiling like that"

"Well, I've been in this forest a few times so I know it quite well" he answered in a whisper. Sakura just stared at him blankly,

"If you were here before you were a gennin and you went to this… wizard school the Hokage told us about, it can't be dangerous…" she stated, making Naruto grin evilly,

"Maybe… Maybe not…" the two kunoichi stared intently at him before Tenten regrouped with her teammates and Sakura went to her 'Sasuke-kun' while Anko was explaining the test, a survival test with a time limit of five days, each team has one heaven or earth scroll that they have to keep and they have to steal one of the opposite scroll and go at a tower in the centre of the forest in the time limit. Five days with the risk of being killed by the other teams or the wildlife of the forest… In other words it will be a test to remember.

The doors opened and the teams rushed in, the survival test has begun.

**A/N: The end of the chapter, I hope you will forgive me for this little cliff-hanger but if I included this exam it would have taken far too long to update but I'll do my best to put up the next chapter soon enough (I have only a vague idea of what's going to happen in the next chapter for the moment). On another note, what do you think of Naruto's strange status? Full of problems huh? Any reviews are appreciated as it will help me to develop the story (but I don't complain when you guys just say you like my story, a great way to be in a good mood I tell you). Well then, hope you enjoyed and see you next chapter ^^**


	8. Chapter 8

The tale of the ninja wizard

Chapter 8: The second test

**A/N: Hey guys, I'm back. So now that Naruto is in the forest of death they will be some action and I hope you will like it. Also I found myself doing some Sasuke and Sakura bashing without realising it, while I do dislike Sasuke (despite the fact that some fanfiction gave him feelings, hooray!). I have nothing against Sakura except the way she treated Naruto in her annoying 'fangirl mode' so even if I bash her now, she will change and treat Naruto better (but I repeat that this story is not a NaruSaku for those who got their hopes up). Now that I said this, let's start the chapter.**

Disclaimer: Do I have to do this every time? I do not own Naruto or Harry Potter but only my imagination and what it produces

"Dialogue"

_"Thoughts"_

'Mental dialogue'

**"Kurama dialogue"**

**_"_****_Kurama thoughts"_**

"**_Spells and jutsus_**"

Team seven just went in the forest before they stopped in a clearing because of Sasuke.

"I think we should discuss our battle plan" he stated/ordered,

"Well you are right about that. But first, who will keep our heaven scroll?" Naruto asked as he pointed the white scroll Sasuke had on his back.

"Isn't it evident that would be me since I'm far more capable than either of you" Sasuke said arrogantly, Naruto narrowed his eyes as Sakura called him 'cool'.

"So good that you got your ass kicked by Rock Lee?"

"He only caught me off guard for a moment" he scoffed, making Naruto sigh.

"That's exactly my point idiot"

"Don't insult Sasuke-kun you baka (idiot)!" Sakura shouted before cowering from Naruto when he leaked some killing intent.

"We are in a forest full of dangerous animals and enemy ninja and you scream? Well done Sakura, I will give you a medal but I'm afraid we don't have the time for this as we must change location to talk" he stated coldly, making Sakura look at the ground in shame as the two teammates reluctantly followed Naruto to another small clearing.

"Now for starter, Sasuke, where do you plan to hide the scroll? Do you know how to create a storage seal or have one on you?" Sasuke shook his head, "Thought so, and if you are as good as you say you are then you obviously noticed that team nine was observing us from the moment Sakura screamed." He stated, shocking his teammates and team nine who appeared shortly after, with Negi narrowing his eyes.

"How did you know this?" he demanded, Naruto made a single hand sign and softly exclaimed,

"Byakugan. That's the moment I knew you were following us" that shocked the others.

"But it was when we were looking for the source of the scream" Tenten stated in disbelief, Naruto chuckled.

"Well, I always had to be careful of ambush when I was a kid. And the fact I knew where you were from the start also helped" he softly laughed at their dumbfounded expressions.

"H-How?" Lee finely managed to ask, Naruto grinned.

"As I told Sakura and Tenten before, I often went in this forest as a kid so I know the chakra signature of everything in it. Basically, you all stick out like sore thumbs in my eyes" Sasuke was pissed at this,

"As if you could be better than me, drop out" Sasuke sneered, before having a kunai scratch his cheek, courtesy of Tenten.

"Well then, I have a proposition for team nine" Naruto interrupted, making the others look at him curiously, minus Sasuke and Sakura who looked at him with disdain.

"And what is it?" Negi asked,

"Simple: Let's become allies. I know you have the earth scroll" he said as he pointed the tip of a brown scroll that Negi concealed on him, "but I will prefer that we don't fight since we are from the same village and two teams fighting as one would make it easier to gather the scrolls we both need. So what is it going to be?" Naruto asked as he slowly prepared a kunai in case they decide to attack them.

"Let my team and I discuss this for a while please." Negi asked, to witch Naruto complied. Team nine went far enough to not be heard while Naruto's teammates came to him with scowls on their face.

"What the hell are you thinking? We are all enemies in this test" Sakura exclaimed angrily,

"And who said we would need help? I could pass this test alone, the only reason you two are here is because we are only able to participate in teams" Sasuke stated coldly.

"Ok, listen to me teme (bastard), that you want it or not neither you nor the sharingan are all powerful. And what I said is true, the more we are the better are our chances to pass the test, especially when the other team is as competent as them." Naruto didn't need to say more before team nine went back to tell them they accepted the deal, despite the scowl on Sakura and Sasuke.

"Well then why don't you all get to know each other while I go answer nature's call?" he asked sheepishly while the others stared at him blankly before they all let out a sigh,

"Ok but don't be long Naruto" Tenten said, exasperated,

"Right nee-san (sister)" he exclaimed sheepishly as he rubbed the back of his head.

He went away from the now talking group and when he was far enough to not hear them he talked.

"You can come out now" Naruto called toward a tree before Amaterasu flew from it and landed on his shoulder, rubbing her head on Naruto's face.

"Hey girl, I need your help here. Can you fly above the forest and tell me where are the other teams, the scroll they have and any other notable things you can gather?" As soon as he finished Amaterasu flew out, knowing it will take some time he went back toward his now enlarged group.

"What took you so long dobe?" Sasuke spat, he and Sakura clearly separated from the others. Naruto sighed at the scene,

"Since this… alliance was your idea, what do you plan to do?" Negi reluctantly asked, making his teammates look at him with wide eyes before Naruto answered.

"For the moment, not rush like idiots and bring you at a safer location than here to make a camp and only after this we will start to track other teams down" Tenten looked at him blankly,

"Who are you and what have you done to my ototo (younger brother)" Naruto looked at the ground in depression, a small black cloud other his head.

"So that's how Tenten nee-san sees me, I see…" The others sweat-dropped at that.

"I was only joking you know?" She tried to comfort him. After that Naruto led the new group, even though two members were displeased by this, to a clearing that was difficult to access to. The only words they could use to describe it were: isolated, devastated and a potential nest for a dangerous animal. The clearing was next to a small river and a cave not far from it, what made them wary the most was the fact that it was clear that half of the clearing wasn't natural with how some trees looked like they were clawed away by a powerful beast.

"Um, Naruto, are you sure this place is safe?" Tenten asked, the others nodded to show they had the same fear. Naruto sighed,

"And where do you plan to go to be safe in this forest? It isn't called the forest of death for fun you know, there is nowhere truly safe. That is the safest place we could ever be since most animals in this forest are wary of this place." He affirmed, Tenten tilted slightly her head in confusion.

"How come?" Naruto grinned,

"Two reasons" he said as he slowly made his way toward the cave. "First is that this is where I stayed and trained when I was a kid"

"In what way will that scare the animals of this forest? You're overestimating yourself dobe" Sasuke arrogantly interrupted. Naruto simply stopped in his tract and look at him with a big grin on his face.

"And how to you think I could do traps that even ANBU could fell prey to?" Tenten shivered at that, having been the victim of some traps he put around his old apartment more than once. It was a wonder what one could do with scraps found in bins and a bit of imagination. If he was used to place traps against the animals of this so-called 'forest of death'… It was not surprising he was that good with traps. While she was thinking that Naruto went toward the cave again.

"The second reason you will meet him in a moment" When he finished team nine and Sakura paled as they guessed what he meant by that: the cave was the home of a beast dangerous enough to scare the other animals of this forest, and that wasn't good for them so they prepared for battle as discreetly as they could. They realised that their only chance was to take it down when it was sleeping and were going to follow what they thought Naruto's plan until he reached the cave… and shouted.

"Wake up you lazy bum, nap time's over!" The others all crashed head first on the floor at that, except for Sasuke who grinned madly.

_"__At last, a challenge to see how far I progressed"_ he thought.

_"__Is he mad? Has he finely lost it after so many years?"_ thought Tenten while the others also panicked, even the normally stoic Negi as he heard rumours about the beasts of this forest.

A large roar reaffirmed their fear as a huge figure stated to come out from the cave. It was a gigantic white tiger, at least six meters high, claws that could easily rip them all to shreds, an old scar other his right front leg that faintly showed despite its fur. And this beautiful and powerful beast was just taken out of its nap, and it looked pissed by this. They were doomed! Or that's what they all thought before the tiger looked at Naruto, then at them, then back to Naruto who nodded with a smile. It let out a breath as if it wanted to sigh and calmly lied down in front of him. They all stared at him with wide eyes. How the hell did he do that?

"H-H-How the hell? W-W-What happened?" stuttered Sakura in shock as the others just stood dumbfound while Sasuke gritted his teeth as he couldn't understand how a beast this powerful could just lie down in front of the drop-out as if it was normal. Naruto had a calm smile as he answered,

"A few years ago I found him with a large wound over one of his legs" he said while pointing to the scar, "of course he wasn't this tall so I brought him here and treated his wounds. After that I suppose we just lived together, I saved his life and he saved mine quite a few times. I guess you could call this a relation based on mutual respect" he finished with a chuckle.

"Either way, this is where we will stay so let's make the camp." He stated, "Negi, Lee, I will need you two to reactivated some old traps in the area as I place some new ones." He said as he gave them a map each, he then turned to Tenten.

"Nee-san, make sure my teammates doesn't start annoying our friend other there, the last time it happened it was a pain to clean the blood from the victims equipment" Tenten and Sakura blanched while Sasuke scowled.

Two hours later the new group finished setting up their camp and put traps around it and were now impatient to start the next part of the plan: scroll hunting. Well only Sasuke was impatient, and he was currently letting it known to the unsaid leader of the team, Naruto.

"Answer me, dobe, what the hell are we waiting for?" he exclaimed.

Team nine sighed and Sakura wasn't sure what to do, on one hand she wanted to support Sasuke but on the other hand she realised how different Naruto was, the fact that he didn't called him 'Sakura-chan' and the way he managed the team were the biggest pointer toward this truth: she had no idea who Naruto was. And since Naruto led them in a safe place to make a camp, granted there was a huge tiger that scared her, and the fact he managed to easily squeeze an alliance with team nine caused her to rethink her view of Naruto. And insulting him when he always acted with a reason in this test was out of the question. She was still a fan of the Uchiha but what she saw of Naruto and what she learned from Tenten while they waited made her start to respect the whiskered ninja, wizard, ninja-wizard? She didn't really know what to call him and didn't really care for the moment. While she was lost in her thought Naruto calmly ignored Sasuke with his eyes closed and arms behind his head as he lied against a tree, a fact that Negi couldn't help but have a small respect as he would have already lost his temper.

Sasuke was gradually getting more and more annoyed but made sure to not scream even though he was pretty close to. After a while Naruto calmly stood up.

"Stop ignoring me you stupid drop-out!" Sasuke finely yelled before Naruto punched him in the face.

"Shut up teme, the reason we were waiting is here, plus you will bring all the ninjas in this forest here with your bitching" Sasuke scowled, Tenten and Lee snickered, Sakura didn't know what to do and Negi raised an eyebrow. Before Sasuke could retaliate a beautiful bright red bird came on his shoulder and rubbed its head against him.

"So Amaterasu, what did you find?" Naruto asked, while most people would think he is crazy to talk with a bird, the Inuzuka clan can talk with their dogs so it wasn't that surprising if Naruto found a way to understand his partner. What they didn't know is that Naruto discovered one of Amaterasu's powers as a phoenix is to be able talk to him telepathically, granted it took some time for her to be able to create a link, mainly because Kurama enhanced Naruto's mind defences to insane levels. Neither less, they can talk to each other, and Naruto loved it.

'They are currently nineteen teams alive, five have moderate to large wounds on some of their members, four teams got both scrolls and are trying to hide themselves. The last dead team were killed by leeches and have a heaven's scroll that no one has taken or even know where they are. Coincidently they are close to your location'

"Now that's convenient, what else?"

'There is two teams you should be wary of, the team from Sunagakure and one of the teams from Kusagakure, one of their member gave me chills as for the team of Suna, the boy with red air is a psychopath and I feel something powerful similar to Kurama but slightly weaker' Naruto's face grew serious at that.

"Duly noted Amaterasu" He turned toward the others. "We found the position of a heaven scroll on a dead team, we will go look for an earth scroll after" He finished, and while team nine nodded in understanding, Sasuke had different thoughts.

"Are you mad? You give them a heaven scroll easily? Very good attitude if you want to be stabbed in the back!" He exclaimed, and that made Naruto lose his temper.

"I know them enough to know they are not this untrustworthy, the only person here that I'm worried will stab us in the back is you teme" He said coldly. "Now before we go, give me the scroll so I can seal it"

"No way in hell am I letting our scroll in such a risk, you won't be able to protect it, dobe" he sneered.

"Says the guy who can't even conceal it properly, I can see it coming out of your pocket by the way" Tenten chuckled at that while Sasuke scowled. It was then that Sakura said something no one ever expected from her.

"Why don't you give the scroll to Naruto, Sasuke-kun?" Everyone turned toward her dumfounded, except Sasuke who was now royally pissed off.

"And why are you saying that? You think I can't protect the scroll better than him" He nearly shouted at her, making her flinch.

"But Naruto said he could make storage seals, right?" she said weakly but regained some confidence when she saw Naruto and Tenten smile at her.

"So now that it's decided can we move on or are we going to wait that the other teams complete the exam?" Negi asked, ending the conversation.

Sasuke reluctantly gave the scroll to Naruto who sealed it in a seal on his arm before Amaterasu and he led them toward the heaven scroll. When they arrived they had to kill the leeches that jumped at them but since no leeches were hidden they easily managed them. Team nine took the scroll and was going to ask what to do next until they saw Naruto loot the dead ninjas.

"What the hell are you doing Naruto?" Tenten exclaimed, not believing that Naruto was doing this.

"They are dead, Tenten. Their equipment won't be useful for them anymore but it can still help us" He calmly reasoned, he didn't like doing this but as a child he learned that it was stupid to not take what you could to survive. He often had to steal from shops or loot bins to survive after all. The others stayed silent and helped him searching the dead ninjas while Sasuke stubbornly refused to follow anything that Naruto said if he could help it. In the end they gathered fifty shurikens, thirty kunais, ten soldier pills, ten blood pills (used to replenish blood) and a weird throwing weapon consisting of two curved blades in opposite directions linked to a standard kunai handle with a ring in the middle, it had the size of two kunais. After a short debate it was decided that the loot will be shared between everyone minus Sasuke since he didn't help, which annoyed him. Each member had ten shurikens, six kunais and two soldier and blood pills, since looting them was Naruto's decision he also had the now called 'double kunai'. After that they decided to rest at camp since it started to get dark.

It was Naruto's turn for night watch when he heard a distant scream, alarmed he scanned the chakra of the forest and found the chakra signature of a ninja pursued by a large bear. Since there were no signs of anybody in the vicinity he decided to help the stranger, even if they are enemies he would prefer to not kill anybody if he could help it. Not that he would be bothered by killing someone to protect himself or others, sometimes you just have to do what you must to survive after all. When he finely reached the location he found a kunoichi on the ground and the bear with its claws in the air ready to deal the final blow. She screamed and closed her eyes as the attack neared her, but it never came. When she opened her eyes she found that a blond ninja was in front of her and blocked the bears strike with one hand. What shocked her was the scared expression on the bear, something she never thought could happen.

"Scram" he coldly ordered the bear, who immediately complied much to the young kunoichi's shock. When she looked at him she also looked at his chakra and it dazzled her, it was so warm and calm that she couldn't help but feel safe. Suddenly all of her tiredness came back as the adrenaline that kept her going vanished, and she passed out. Naruto turned around to see the kunoichi he just saved passed out, he picked her up and looked at her properly for the first time since he was in a hurry before. She had red hair that was short and spiky on her right side and long and straight on her left side, a forehead protector with the sign of Kusagakure and brown glasses. She wore fishnet stockings, black sandals, a purple skirt and a light brown short sleeved jacket. Naruto searched again but couldn't sense anyone even remotely close.

'Seems like she was abandoned by her team to escape the bear' he said to himself, angry that people would do that to their own comrades.

**"****It is truly despicable how some human act. I can understand when someone acts on an instinct to survive but just abandoning a teammate is…"**

'She was just treated as bait for her teammates to escape.' Naruto said bitterly as he made his way toward the camp. 'Even if they are bigger than most bears, a team can easily escape by working together. If I find the bastards who did that…'

**"… ****Just don't do something you can regret. And we need to talk once you are back at the camp."**

'About what?'

**"****Something I didn't plan on telling you until you were older but I don't have a choice anymore."** Kurama answered, stopping the conversation.

When he arrived at the camp, Tenten was up and seemed relieved when she saw him back, until she saw the girl in Naruto's arms. Naruto delicately put her in his tent and came back toward Tenten.

"Where were you? And who is she?"

"I heard a scream and went to investigate, I found her when a bear was going to kill her so I saved her. I don't know who she is except she's from Kusa and that she was used as bait by her teammates so they can escape."

"How do you know this?"

"Simple, if she chose to be the bait then she wouldn't have screamed loud enough for me to hear. She was pretty dam far and I took a long path so nobody should be able to find us here" he said. "If her teammates have an earth scroll I will kill them, even if they don't have them and we cross them in fact." Tenten had a serious expression on her face.

"What happened to you when we were separated? What made you like that?"

"Like what?" he asked in worry.

"You're still the same, but at the same time more… How should I say it…? Hard?"

"Well, I lived in the streets for a while as I told you, so I starved, and I had to learn to steal and hunt to survive. Then jiji gave me an apartment, even if it was crappy he couldn't help me more as I wasn't a ninja yet. There started the 'demon hunts' as they called them. At least it varied, plain group beating, lacerations, cutting me with kunais, lapidation, burning me alive… they always tried to be original in my tortures when they managed to get to me." Tenten was horrified when she heard this.

"W-What, how the hell could this happen? Why didn't Hokage-sama send guards for you, surely in a case like that he could intervene!" she exclaimed, it was a good thing they were too far for the others to hear them.

"He did send some ANBU to guard me, but they weren't many people willing to guard me. And sometimes my guards had to go on more important missions. Normally the fear of my ANBU guards lurking in the shadows should have been enough to keep them away since they didn't know when they were here or not, but it seems that they was always some ninjas that were telling them about that. Jiji arrested some of them but they was always two more to take their place"

"Why? Why did they do this to you? I can understand if they dislike you because of your pranks but this is too much!" Tenten snapped. This was it, the dreaded moment. Naruto never planned to hide anything to Tenten but this… Tenten was in the orphanage because her family was killed by Kurama, what will she think of him…

_"__No! She deserves the truth, even if she misunderstands, even if she hates me!"_ Naruto strengthened his resolve.

"The reason I am hated by the village…" He started with difficulty as Tenten went silent. "Is because the Kyubi is sealed in me" he said as he closed his eyes. There, it was done now, no turning back, not that he considered that to begin with. Then again he expected her to scream at him from the shock, fear him, slap him or even try to kill him. He never expected her to hug him.

"Sorry" she said. He was stunned.

"For what?"

"For not being here when you needed me the most. All those years… And I had the gall to say you became hard… Scratch that, you stayed the same even after all that when you could have gone insane. I'm sorry." Tears were starting to form in his eyes.

"N-Nee-san, I…"

"Hush… It's all right, I only realise now how hard it must have been. I don't blame you for anything and never will. You can stop being so hard on yourself, I'm here now, you can cry" And crying he did, all his stocked up emotions from years of torture went out. After years where he never allowed himself to cry, he let everything out. Kurama smiled softly as he saw this scene, remembering the last time he saw Naruto cry this much. Back there too he cried in Tenten's arms, the only other person he ever cried in front of was Hermione and even then it wasn't as much as those times. And that was a scary thought: not even the feeling he had when dying made him cry this much. Kurama could easily see the difference between those times, because at this moment the sewer full of water in Naruto's mindscape went dry. As Naruto lost consciousness in Tenten's arms Kurama saw the now dry sewer collapsing, leaving place to an enormous plain with a lake, mountains in the horizon and a few trees. Kurama was chained to a gigantic tree by a leash with the kanji for seal on it. He smiled as he lied down under the shade of the tree.

**"****Goodnight kit, and sweet dreams"**

Naruto dreamed of his past, the way he was always treated until he met Kurama, that encounter truly helped him. He laughed as he remembers the face the great beast made when he found out how to go to his mindscape to visit him. The fox hated him at the beginning but quickly warmed up to Naruto, after all he never asked for him to be sealed, and he even made a promise to him, one day he will free Kurama. That is what started their friendship, a childish promise that Naruto always took to heart to fulfil one day or another. He remembered the days at the orphanage, how Tenten always took care of him, but also how he was quickly thrown out. The month in the streets was hell: stealing and hunting allowed him to survive, until he was found by Ayame. From this point on he became their number one client as they always treated him kindly. After, when the hokage found out he was in the streets he immediately gave him an apartment and sent some ANBU to guard him. Unfortunately it didn't always stop the villagers having their way with him, the list of tortures he suffered was too long to list out. Because of that he learned to place and create traps with nearly nothing like an expert, he also learned how to stay stealthy no matter what. But he also learned how to camp, and with the help of Kurama he often hid in the forests near Konoha and trained as a ninja and also learned how to cloak himself in chakra and control it. But the villagers became more persistent and tried to chase him out of the woods, that's when he started to go in the forest of death… and where he met Anko. The first time he went there was hard, he nearly died several times but with the help of Kurama and his own stubbornness he managed to stay alive. But one day he was caught by a bear when he was already wounded and was going to be killed when Anko appeared and saved him. He could still remember the punishment she put him through for going in the forest… and the training she gave him, her and Kurama were both insane in their training but that made him stronger, faster and gave him an extremely good chakra control. After years of training he became the 'king of the forest' as Anko like to say, all the beasts in it respected him and feared his strength but he hid it all at the academy. Then he went at Hogwarts and discovered a whole new world, a world that didn't hate him. It took a big burden off his shoulders, and his friends took off more of it. Truly his life took a turn for the better.

Naruto woke up, but unexpectedly he wasn't sad as he used to be every time he remembered his life. In fact he felt relieved, happy even. And surprisingly he was the first one up.

**"****Hey kit, how are you doing?"** Well except from Kurama it seemed.

'Never was better than this morning' Naruto answered with a calm smile.

**"****Good to know that, but if you remember I still have something to tell you"**

'I remember, what is it?' Kurama braced himself.

**"****The girl you saved last night… She's an Uzumaki"** There was silence for a moment.

'What the hell do you mean?' He exclaimed.

**"****Listen kit, I know that the academy taught you of the Uzumaki clan and also that some orphans are named by lost clans to honour their memories. But believe me when I'm saying that you are a real Uzumaki, and that girl too. You are part of the same clan."** Naruto sat down in shock.

'I have a clan? What happened to the other Uzumaki?'

**"****Mostly killed the day their village was destroyed but the survivors scattered around the world or stayed where they were if they were lucky enough to be out of the village the day it fell. Like your mother was in Konoha at the time."**

'My mother? You knew her?'

**"****Yes I knew her well, her name is Kushina Uzumaki and she was my previous container. I can't tell you more about your family until I'm sure you are ready kit, sorry. But be sure of one thing: both of them loved you more than anything."** Naruto stayed silent for a while. Kurama couldn't blame him as it was a big shock for a twelve years old to take in.

'Kurama… Thank you'

**"****Huh? For what, kit?"**

'Telling me this, I will also inform this girl that we are relatives. Maybe we could become a family again, who knows' he answered with a bright smile.

Half an hour later the others woke up and went toward Naruto, who was currently cooking a rabbit and had several fruits prepared. But one thing was weird: he prepared enough food for seven people.

"Why is there enough food for seven people?" Sakura asked what they all, minus Tenten, wondered.

"Well that is because I have a guest" he replied with a smile, making the others frown.

"A guest? After an alliance you bring back an unknown ninja? Really smooth, dobe" Sasuke sneered.

"I have to agree with the Uchiha this time. Unless you have a good reason I will have to consider you put us in danger and our alliance stops here." Negi stated. Naruto merely grinned.

"I have several reasons: first Is that since I saved her she own me one. Secondly, since she is an enemy ninja she must have some Intel on her teammates or other opponents we might come through so I took her as a prisoner. The third reason is something I have to check with her before I decide if I should tell you about it."

"What, you are going to ask her out, is that it?" Sasuke mocked, only to be perfectly ignored by Naruto.

"But isn't that dangerous? I mean she could try to escape…" Sakura said worryingly.

"Not a problem, I took out every weapons she had on her and put a seal that stops her to use chakra" the others were dumbfounded.

"When did you learn seals Naruto-san?" Lee asked.

"Since I was a kid, I'm no master but I am still pretty decent with them. Negi can check if you want but either way, with six ninja against her when she can't use chakra… I don't think she is stupid enough to try something" As soon as Naruto finished the girl nervously went out of his tent. The others discreetly prepared for battle, even though Sasuke was pretty obvious in his attention, and Negi activated his byakugan before he relaxed.

"I must say I'm impressed you could make a seal like that. I thought you were the dead last in the academy" Negi said, shocking the others.

"Concealing your true abilities until you have to use them is a lesson I learned in order to survive." Naruto stated before walking toward the red haired girl. Girl that was currently scared because she couldn't use her chakra because of a seal that, if she understood her situation correctly, was put on her by her saviour last night. She was still about to _see_ the chakra of the others: Sakura had a conflicted chakra, as if she wasn't honest with herself. Negi's chakra gave an icy and in control feeling. Tenten's chakra was wilder and as sharp as weapons. Lee's chakra... was all over the place, a sign he had no control and was very energetic. Sasuke's chakra was as dark, malicious and broody than him and seeing this chakra scared her a bit. And then they was Naruto, his chakra was still as warm and calm as she remembered and that calmed her.

"Who are you?" She couldn't stop herself to ask. Naruto chuckled.

"Isn't it polite to present yourself before asking others?" She blushed in embarrassment.

"I'm Karin, a kunoichi from Kusagakure. And I would like to thank you for saving me yesterday, even though we are enemies…" she said while bowing.

"I'm Naruto Uzumaki. But you do realize that you are my prisoner, right?"

"Yes, but I prefer that than death" She answered truthfully. Seeing as she wasn't going to fight back the others went to prepare themselves to go out and eat. Tenten and Sakura were the only ones to stay as they were already prepared and brought the food so they can eat as they talked. They were silent for a moment until Naruto talked.

"I want you to tell me everything you know about the other ninjas, particularly your teammates"

"You want me to betray my teammates?" She asked with wide eyes.

"I'm asking you to betray bastards that left you to die" He calmly stated, making her hesitate, "But I can still torture you until you talk if you want. I was trained by a particularly sadist T&amp;I specialist" the girls paled at that as he calmly ate as if it was nothing.

"I-I'll talk, ok? No need for torture!" she quickly exclaimed.

_"__Too easy"_ Naruto though while mentally smirking. And so she revealed all she knew, it wasn't much more than what Amaterasu already found but it was still useful. After that the group talked about Karin's life in general and Naruto found out she was also an outcast, reaffirming his will to help her. But as all things comes to an end the group had to go. The objective was the earth scroll Karin's old teammates conveniently had on them. After several hours where Naruto guided them in safer parts of the forest they decided to take a quick break. Just as they started to relax Naruto heard a sound, and felt a chakra that didn't belong to the forest.

"Shit, everyone get rea_" A strong gale hit him in full force and threw him far away from the others. Naruto moaned as he got up from a tree he collided with.

**"****You ok kit?"**

'As ok as one can be when they have the feeling that they were hit head on by a troll'

**"****I see… Be careful something is coming, and it's big"** Kurama warned him and sure enough, a gigantic snake appeared in front of him.

"Just great…" He said with a sweat-drop. He jumped out of the way when the snake tried to bit him only to be hit by its tail, making him collide into another tree and cracking it in the process.

_"__Ouch, I got it, he hit hard"_ He thought as he got out of the tree, much to the snake's surprise. It was going to charge at him but was intercepted by a white blur that threw it away. The tiger Naruto befriended was here, and it wasn't happy that a snake was on its territory. The tiger looked back at Naruto as if saying 'You're still here?'. Naruto grinned as he rushed toward his group.

"Thanks for the save" He shouted as he disappeared, the sound of two beast fighting behind him. When he arrived where the others were he was shocked. They were all knocked out except Tenten, but she didn't look like she would last long. Her opponent was a snake like, pale looking man who looked as if he was merely playing and not just defeated six gennins alone. One thing was sure, he was far stronger than them and definitely not a gennin. And Naruto knew of only two people able to summon snakes, and if it wasn't Anko…

_"__Orochimaru…"_ It was the only alternative. Their opponent was a Konoha missing-nin and one of the legendary sannin. Sannin that was standing on a giant snake, Tenten facing him on a branch. The snake was charging head first toward her but was stopped when it collided into Naruto's back. Naruto was facing Tenten as he held two kunais in a reverse grip that the snake impaled itself with (as in canon if you don't get it, just replace Sasuke by Tenten).

"Naruto!" She exclaimed in shock. He looked up at her with a small smile, but his eyes were turned into red slits.

"I wonder why I always arrive at a moment like that?" He said before he gave a roundhouse kick to the snake, making it recoil from the power of the blow.

_"__Yup, reinforcing my body with Kurama's chakra was a good idea"_ He thought as the snake shook its head briefly before glaring at him while Orochimaru looked interested.

_"__Is this kid?"_ He wondered before Naruto suddenly jumped and punched the snake, who slid back a few meters. _"No mistakes, red slit eyes and monstrous strength: he is the Kyubi's jinchuriki. How interesting"_ He thought as Naruto was thrown back by the snake. Tenten was going to rush to help him but he stopped her.

"I need you to throw as many weapons as you can, I have a trick that can work" he said before he rushed again, much to the snake summoner's amusement. As Naruto distracted him, more like getting trashed by him, she prepared her special technique. She took out two scrolls and activated them, making a smoke explosion as the scrolls flew in the air in a spiral of the shape of twin smoke dragons. She jumped between them and put her hands other one of the scrolls numerous seals, making appear a kunai and three shurikens that she threw nearly immediately.

"**_Twin rising dragon_**" She exclaimed, making a rain of various weapon falling toward Orochimaru.

The sannin would've laugh it off but was caught by surprise when some of the weapons randomly went five times bigger. Orochimaru jumped out of the way but his summon wasn't as lucky as it was impaled by several giant shurikens, kunais and a few lances before disappearing in a puff of smoke. When he looked to try to understand what happened he saw Tenten's shocked look and Naruto's smirk.

_"__I knew it was a good idea to learn this spell in advance"_ He thought as casting the enlargement spell had devastating results. But he didn't took the time to savour this small victory, he knew he won't survive this fight if he became arrogant. His only hope was to gain some time until jonins appeared.

"It seems you are trickier than I first thought but that won't change a thing" The sannin said before he became a blur and hit Naruto who barely had the time to guard his chest before being sent in a tree, breaking it with the impact.

"As if I'm going to fall that easily, bastard" Naruto shouted as he poured more of Kurama's chakra to reinforce his body and rushed toward the snake summoner. They fought for a while but Naruto couldn't land a hit and Tenten couldn't throw anything without risking to hit Naruto.

_"__Shit, I can't do a dam thing"_ Naruto was hit in his stomach, making him throw up blood before Orochimaru grabbed him by the throat and lift him up. The sannin's tongue elongated to some impossible degree and lifted Naruto's jacket to reveal the seal containing Kurama.

"What a troublesome seal, to let you borrow this beast chakra…" Orochimaru said to himself while he draw his hand back, chakra flaring on each of his fingers.

"What are you_" Naruto was interrupted as the sannin struck the seal with his fingers, bringing enormous pain to him as he started to fall unconscious, Kurama's worried voice slowly fading away. Orochimaru threw him sideways toward a tree before Tenten threw a kunai that pinned him to it by his jacket to prevent him from falling. That made the snake summoner to turn toward her.

"Yes, I forgot there was someone else here. Seeing how desperate he was to protect you, I wonder what will happen if I killed you… An interesting experiment don't you think?" He asked coldly as the strongest killing intent he let out since the beginning of the fight fell on her, bringing her on one knee. Naruto saw this as he was slowly falling unconscious.

_"__No, I have to save her! Come on my body, move! Move, dammit!"_ Darkness started to fall on his sight. _"No, not like that! I don't care if it destroys my body, I have to save her! I have to…"_ This was his last thought as he finely passed out. Orochimaru was slowly making his way toward Tenten, enjoying her scared face until they both felt a sudden surge of a powerful energy coming from Naruto. They both turned their head to see him surrounded by a green energy that healed his wounds. Naruto was lifted in the air and faced them, still unconscious.

_"__What is this?"_ Wondered Orochimaru. Naruto slowly lifted his right arm toward the sannin who then jumped out of the way by instinct, the spot he was just a moment ago was blown away by an invisible force that easily destroyed several trees behind.

_"__If that hit even I wouldn't come unscathed"_ Orochimaru thought before he dodged a blade of wind that cleanly cut the tree behind him in two. Orochimaru was retreating and noticed that Naruto didn't attack him anymore. Seeing this as his chance he charged toward Tenten, aiming to kill her but before he could reach her Naruto appeared before him and punched his stomach. Orochimaru threw up blood and an earth scroll before he was sent flying through the forest, breaking several trees in the process.

_"__Impressive! I will look your progress with great interest Jinchuriki"_ He thought before he retreated, his primary objective, placing a cursed seal on the Uchiha, completed. Tenten stared at Naruto in shock as he hovered in front of her before the strange energy disappeared and he started to fall. Tenten quickly grabbed him and brought him on the branch she was standing on.

_"__I would ask you what happened but I'm sure you would have no idea yourself. You really are unpredictable…"_ she thought as she looked at his sleeping form and stroked his hair, a smile finding itself on his face.

_"__Now what?"_

**A/N: Yep, chapter finished, finely. So, what do you think of it? I know that I didn't go very far with Naruto's relationship with the tiger and how he became the 'king of the forest' but I will use this later in the story. Also I will let you choose if you want this explained in a flashback or as a story that Naruto will tell to someone, if you vote please do it by e-mail at Anonymous4story (Yeah, I know it's not the best name ever…), if you don't want to do it by e-mail you can do it by private message to not overrun reviews with votes (that I hope will be plenty ^^). Now I also have a challenge to give you: Imagine a dangerous creature, it can be anything you want. The creature I find is the best will be used in the story, although I might use some of the others too ^^. I hope they will be many votes. Well then, hope you enjoyed and see you next chapter ^^**


	9. Chapter 9

The tale of the ninja wizard

Chapter 9: Naruto vs Kiba

**A/N: Hey guys, I'm back! Before we start I would like to answer some questions some of you asked me: first was to know if Naruto will learn the Rasengan and the toad summon, my answer is yes, he will definitely learn them. There was also a question about possible other pairings other than Naruto/Hermione… I'm sorry for those who expected to see that but there won't be any of that here. Also on the same occasion if some of you expected to see some lemon at some point… Well they won't be any of those, at all. By the way I think I must warn you that I will introduce what I call 'minor crossover' meaning that I might put some characters, creatures or even techniques from another manga or book than Naruto and Harry Potter, but I won't just put them in and say 'It's magic, shut up'. I will do my best to integrate those elements in the story so that it makes sense in it. For example, imagine I take Luffy from One Piece, I won't just make him appear with powers from devil fruits but put him in as a ninja or a wizard instead. See: minor crossover, minor impact on the universe (at least that's what I think). And I will also need your help to know when I'll need to put the rating up, I don't know what is allowed exactly before it considered M content in violence, just in case. I thank those who asked questions and all the other reviewers, thanks a lot and don't hesitate if you have a question ^^. Now then, on to the story!**

Disclaimer: I. Only. Own. My. Imagination

"Dialogue"

_"Thoughts"_

'Mental dialogue'

**"Kurama dialogue"**

**_"_****_Kurama thoughts"_**

"**_Spells and jutsus_**"

When he opened his eyes the first thing Naruto saw was a stone ceiling that he immediately recognized as the inside of the tower in the middle of the forest. He took a moment to clear his thoughts.

'Well it seems like my luck hasn't run out, right Kurama?' only silence answered him.

'Kurama? Come on fox, it's not funny' he waited for the fox to laugh, but nothing came. Naruto then tried to feel Kurama's presence in panic but he couldn't sense anything. Naruto quickly lifted his shirt to look at his seal and when he did he saw another seal in place over the first one. He then understood what Orochimaru did to him, he cut all ties he had with the fox. For the first time in his life, Naruto was truly alone, and it hurt. Naruto couldn't stop the tears coming as he felt cold for the first time in his life. He brought his knees to his chest and sobbed quietly. It was this scene that Tenten saw when she came in with Anko. His two sister figures immediately rushed to his side in concern and hugged him. After a while he calmed down.

"What happened?" Anko asked softly.

"I can't contact Kurama anymore" he answered in a shaky voice. "It's because of a seal that this snake-bastard put on me" Anko froze at that and subconsciously touched her neck, but calmed down when Naruto shook his head.

"No wonder we found you crying then…" Tenten started softly. "But you know, everyone in the team is fine and we passed the second part of the exam. Hokage-sama is also here so he can surely take care of this seal" Naruto's head perked up at that and he smiled.

"It's true?" Tenten and Anko nodded with a small smile.

"Also, how long was I out for?"

"Three days" Anko answered.

"Damn, so it's the end of the second test, right?"

"Not exactly… There are too many brats for the third part of the exam" Anko said with a smirk.

"So they are having preliminaries" Tenten continued with a sigh. "But Anko-san refuse to tell me what it will be" Anko's smirk grew larger, making Tenten shiver.

"I can only tell you one thing, you're going to love this, Naruto. Also, there are some special guest who came to see this part of the exam, and I think you will like to see them" she said calmly.

"Well then, what are we waiting for? I have to get that stupid seal off" Naruto exclaimed energetically as he jumped out of bed, making the two Kunoichi chuckle.

They followed him as he went to see the hokage, talking along the way of what happened while he was unconscious. He was annoyed when he heard that the snake sannin put a cursed seal on Sasuke that worsened his personality, 'Just what we needed' was what Naruto said to that. He also learned that Karin's old teammates died in the forest, ironically they were eaten by a bear. After a quick visit to the Hokage the seal was released… by another strike at Naruto's stomach.

_"__Damn it hurts!"_

**"****Naruto! You're all right kit?"** Naruto froze, before a huge smile came to his face.

'Yeah, now I'm all right. But to have our link cut off was scary…'

**"****I know, I saw everything and there is something I'll have to talk to you about when you will have time"**

'Ok, fine'

"Thank you for taking this seal away, jiji" Naruto told the Hokage with one of his trademark grin.

"No problem Naruto, but you should get to the training room with the others. The next test will start soon.

When Naruto entered the room with Tenten he noticed that they were the last ones but also that they weren't a lot of teams here. The teams present were: the sand team with the guy that has a 'I won't to rip everyone to shreds' look, the Oto-nins team and all of the Konoha gennins. That was surprising, even the team lead by a guy named Kabuto that Naruto couldn't help but feel he was suspicious, were there. In front of the gennins were the examinees, the hokage and the jonin instructors of all the teams. The hokage soon started his congratulation speech for them to pass the second exam but since they are too many gennins to pass to the third one they had to go through one on one matches to determine who will pass to the last exam. Nothing shocking as Naruto more or less guessed it will be this, as Anko said he was going to love this.

"Now before we start the preliminaries" The hokage started.

"I know that you were all informed of the existence of wizards and their world as they were informed about us. That is why this year wizards have been invited to assist to the third part of the exam. A few of them were also, for special reasons, invited to assist to this part of the exam. So as well from leaders and influential individuals from the elemental nations they will also be some from their countries." When he finished the room was silent. They all knew what it meant: not only are they going to show their village's strength to attract the attention, and by that more requests, of leaders of the elemental nations they also have the chance of doing it with new potential clients that have a totally neutral opinion of their village. Although they knew a lot of the wizards treated them as barbarians it was a huge opportunity that was presented, and a good amount of additional stress.

"Now then, if anyone wants to quit now's the time" a sickly chunin named Geko Hayate said, apparently he was the referee for the preliminary. Nobody left except Kabuto, which made him even more suspicious to Naruto since he looked barely beaten up but he decided he was just too scared. After all, the fights could go until death, even thought it was usually frowned upon. Following this a part of the wall moved to reveal a big screen where the name of the fighters appeared. The first match was Sasuke against a sound ninja but he lost interest when he went with the others in the upper level of the room and saw who the 'special guests' were. He wasn't expecting to see Dumbledore, Harry, Ron and Hermione as the special guests but it still brought a small smile to his face as he waved at them.

"Hey guys, what are you doing here?" Tenten looked at him.

"You know them?"

"Yup, they are wizards. The headmaster of my school, Hogwarts, and three of my friends" he answered as they went closer.

"Nice to see you, Naruto" Harry said, "Who is she?" he asked.

"Ah, Tenten I present you Harry, Ron and Hermione" he said as he pointed at each of them, "Harry, Ron, Hermione I present you Tenten"

"So you are Hermione? Can I have a word with you?" Tenten asked.

"Uh, sure…" Hermione hesitantly answered as Tenten dragged her farther away, enough so that they were out of ear shot.

"Special reasons, huh?" Naruto addressed Dumbledore, the look on his face showing clearly he knew why the old wizard brought his friends here.

"I'm sure you know that showing them directly the world you are in is for their best interests. After all it is difficult for wizards to imagine your lifestyle" He answered. Naruto sighed as he leaned on the ramp to see Sasuke end the battle with a chain of strikes. After this Tenten and a pale Hermione joined them as the next match opposing Shino and another sound shinobi. While the match went on Sakura joined them to discuss the match with them. And the end of this match brought the first problem: Shino's opponent had both arms blown up, his right arm was brutally severed from the explosion and his left arm was barely hanging. Blood went everywhere, and Harry, Ron and Hermione had their first wake up call. This wasn't a simple sparing session, death could happen. The three young wizards had to excuse themselves as they went to the toilets for obvious reasons.

"You sure your friends understood what are ninjas, Naruto?" Kakashi said as he appeared behind them.

"Kakashi-sensei, where were you?" Naruto asked.

"More importantly, how is Sasuke-kun?" Sakura interrupted. As Kakashi tried to reassure her, Karin, who couldn't participate since a full team was needed to complete the second exam, went next to Naruto.

"Hello Naruto-kun, I'm glad to see you are fine"

"Nice to see you too" He said with one of his trademark grin that made Karin blush a bit, a fact that didn't go unnoticed by Tenten.

"I-I was worried when you didn't wake up, Tenten explained to us what happened when we were knocked out and because you weren't waking up…"

"Don't worry, this bastard was interested in me so he would have let me live for observation purpose. But it was a miracle that nobody died you know" Naruto laughed it up.

"By the way Naruto-kun, who are those three people?" She asked as she pointed at the returning wizards. Naruto froze a moment as he realised her use of an affective honorific before he shrug it off.

"Three friends of mine at the wizard school" Before she could say anything else a loud snapping sound came from the arena. The sand gennin who controls puppets just broke several bones of his opponent, a sound gennin.

"This is… Brutal" Hermione said with a pale face that Harry and Ron also sported.

"Not really, he will be fine after a month or two" Naruto calmly stated, his three wizard friends stared at him with wide eyes. A second wake-up call that reminded them of the fact that Naruto grew up in this brutal world. The next match was Sakura versus Ino that ended in a draw… after ten long minutes. After that was Tenten's match against a sand gennin called Temari and who used a giant fan as a weapon. After a while, and a lot of weapon thrown by Tenten, she lost. Tenten was still injured from her fight to survive Orochimaru and Temari was a skilled wind user, the worst match up for a weapon user. After another match of Shikamaru against another sound gennin it was Naruto's turn, his opponent was…

"Hahahaha! Lucky! We can definitely beat him Akamaru!" Kiba loudly announced, annoying a newly woken up Tenten, Karin, Harry, Ron and Hermione. Naruto calmly jumped in the arena.

"Why did you bring a puppy? He's in the way"

"Idiot, Akamaru's fighting with me"

"Is that allowed?" Naruto asked the referee who nodded. "So I can bring an animal to help me?" again a nod. "Heh, Amaterasu, come!" He exclaimed before his phoenix came and perched herself on his shoulder.

'I'm ready, master'

"I'm counting on you" he addressed Amaterasu, but turned back to Kiba when he laughed.

"A little bird? You think we'll lose to the drop-out and some weird bird? Hilarious!"

'Can I kill him, master?' Amaterasu coldly asked, some killing intent leaking out of her.

'No, don't let what he said get to you. In fact it's better for him to underestimate us because he is in for a nasty surprise' Naruto answered.

"I feel so sorry for you that I will finish in one punch" Kiba exclaimed. Naruto grinned.

"Is that so? I'm sorry but I can't promise I'll do the same, Amaterasu is completely annoyed with you and won't end it quickly"

"Stop acting tough!" Akamaru barked his approval toward his master. It was silent a moment.

"Well then, fight!" Hayate started the match. Kiba immediately crouched as he made a seal, before going on all four as his body became more beast like, nails becoming claws and fangs longer. He suddenly dashed faster than he should be able too, surprising Naruto and landing his elbow in his guts, making him fly two meters before falling. Kiba dispelled his jutsu as he walked away.

"He won't wake up for a while" He said to the referee, "The fight is over"

"Says who?" Kiba froze and turned around, Naruto was slowly standing up and looking fine.

"Don't underestimate me! You could have died if it was a real battle" Kiba gritted his teeth in anger.

"Fine you bastard, you're gonna get it" He stated before he charged again with Akamaru. Kiba took a smokeball and threw it at Naruto's feet before they charged in. But they were thrown out quickly, when the smoke cleared they saw Amaterasu flying around Naruto.

"When I told you to not underestimate me… Did you really think it was all right to underestimate her?" Naruto coldly asked, shocking the audience that mostly thought that he was weak.

"It seems you've gotten slightly stronger, but it's over. I'm getting serious now"

"Is that so? Then me too" Kiba searched his pouch and took out two soldier pills. He gave one to Akamaru, the white dog turning red, and took one for himself. He then crouch and made the same hand sign as his dog jumped on his back and barked before they both turned into beast like version of Kiba.

"**_Beast-human clone no jutsu_**" They were both covered in their chakra as they charged Naruto.

'Amaterasu, take care of the pup, I'll take care of the idiot' Naruto ordered his phoenix as he dodged their first attack. As he was in the air Kiba saw an opening.

"Take this, Beast-human taijutsu supreme technique: **_Fang passing fang_**" he exclaimed as Akamaru and he started spinning in the air as they charged Naruto at great speed, looking like two spiralling columns.

_"__Impossible"_ Naruto was too shocked to do anything at all, took the attack head on. His clothes were torn in some places and slight wounds appeared all over his body. When he fell Kiba was landing on all fours and had a smug smile.

"That is the difference in our abilities" he exclaimed arrogantly. But he was taken aback when he heard Naruto chuckle before he exploded in laugher as he slowly stood up. He quickly calmed down thought and looked straight at Kiba.

"You call that your ultimate taijutsu technique? Hilarious! I've seen a sick wolf do that better than you" Every ninja froze at that: the technique Kiba used was a clan technique and he just told he saw a wild wolf use it? They were shocked.

"You bastard, have you been spying on my clan?" Kiba shouted in anger.

"It's exactly as I said. The name of the first jutsu said it all… Beast-human clone was it? Your clan has always tried to be closer to beasts, to fight like them and ultimately you copied some of their feral fighting style. In fact you would probably be honoured to be called a beast" Naruto calmly said before he glared at him, "Then I'll gladly let you take the name and the treatment the villagers put me through since I was a kid" he coldly exclaimed. The statement shocked most ninjas but it had a huge impact on the last sand gennin that was wearing an enormous gourde, had auburn hair and the biggest shadows under his eyes than anybody could ever have. He too had a great beast sealed inside him and because of it, was treated as a beast too. In the madness that mostly took over him he found a bit of hope: maybe he finely found somebody who will understands things.

"You know, I'm kind of angry towards the Inuzuka. I mean, I lived through a nightmare because people treated me like a beast and you wish to be treated like that? It's like when I heard of the one they call the 'Green beast of Konoha' and that they admire… Where the hell is the logic, huh?" He asked angrily. Might Guy, the so called 'Green beast' flinched when he heard that.

"It still doesn't explain why you spied on my clan" Kiba answered in irritation.

"I had to camp outside of the village several times to avoid some furious mobs of villagers. Hell I even had to camp in this forest to avoid them sometimes" The audience stared dumbly at that except for Tenten, Anko and Sarutobi. "And I had my fair share of battle against animals, and I've seen some of them use some crazy techniques. And that's why you can't call this cheap imitation a real **_Tsuga_** (passing fang)!" Kiba was angered at that.

"Shut up!" He shouted as he charged, only to see Akamaru being hit in the back and thrown in the air by a spiralling red blur. The dog lost its transformation as he fell to the ground, knocked out and bruised.

"And you should be more careful of your surroundings. If not Amaterasu will bring you down with her**_ Crimson spiral_**" Kiba looked ready to be blinded by anger but bit his hand until he drew blood to calm himself.

"Think you can beat me because you're faster?" Kiba froze as Naruto smirked. "Sorry but I was just surprised that we had similar jutsus"

'Amaterasu stand back, I got this'

'Yes master' she answered as she flew away toward his friends.

"Similar jutsus? You're just bluffing"

"Want to see?"

'Ready Kurama?'

**"****I was waiting for you to ask"** Naruto used Kurama's chakra to reinforce his body and make it more beast like, his hair grew wilder, his nails turned to claws, his fangs became sharper, his whiskers grew more pronounced and his eyes became red and slits.

"What the" Kiba exclaimed in shock before he gritted his teeth and charged again. He tried to land a punch on Naruto's face but he dodged it by moving his face just enough and countered with a kick to Kiba's stomach. Kiba doubled over but managed to jump out of the way when Naruto was trying to pound his head in the ground. His fist connected with the ground, cracking the stone a little. Kiba tried to create an opening by throwing several shurikens but Naruto took out his double kunai and made it spin to stop them. As Naruto put it back Kiba charged again hoping to beat Naruto with his speed, but he didn't realize that Naruto's **_Half-beast transformation_** was stronger than his after years of practise with Kurama. Kiba, who was first on the offensive, quickly found himself forced in a defensive position as Naruto didn't give him the time to properly counter attack. After a while Kiba jumped back to have a break of Naruto's assault. Every Konoha gennin that weren't with him in the forest stared in shock: there was no way that was Naruto the academy drop-out. But here he was, having an even match with Kiba. In fact it wasn't even as Kiba was pushed back in his half-beast form and Naruto made it look easy.

"So, finished already pup?" Naruto taunted, effectively pushing Kiba over the edge.

"As if I'll lose to a loser like you!" He shouted as he charged Naruto. He noticed Naruto's smirk to late, a seal activated itself where he was standing. He didn't have time to jump and became tightly bounded by ninja wires.

"What the hell?" He exclaimed as tried to escape the wires.

"Don't bother, those are chakra wires several times stronger than normal ones" Naruto said as he reverted back to normal, "And didn't I tell you to be careful about your surroundings?"

"Winner: Uzumaki Naruto" Hayate declared, creating several reactions in the audience. Tenten, Sakura, Karin, Harry, Ron, Lee and Hermione loudly cheered, Hinata softly congratulated him while the other gennins of Konoha and their sensei were shocked as they were sure Kiba was going to win. As he went back up Naruto noticed the auburn sand shinobi staring at him.

'Is that the one you warned me about Amaterasu? The one that felt like Kurama?'

'Yes, master'

'I thought I told you to stop calling me master?'

'You did, master' Naruto sighed.

'What do you think of this, Kurama?'

**"****I can feel the presence of one of my siblings. Shukaku to be exact, this sand racoon is one of the most troublesome to have sealed in somebody… plus the brat's seal is shitty as hell"**

'Why is he the most troublesome to seal and how can we help him?'

**"****I never said that he was the most troublesome to seal, that would be me, but he is the most troublesome to ****_have_**** sealed. The thing is that his all his jinchuriki are afraid of going to sleep so they are always awake. Every time they sleep Shukaku will take a bit more control and rage around. This, the problem of sleep deprivation, the shitty seal that allows Shukaku to slowly harass the brat's mind plus the way his village probably treated him and you have all you need to create a perfect psychopath. As to how you can help… You can't for the moment: you're not that good with seals yet and I doubt the sand ninjas will let any Konoha shinobi near their 'precious weapon'… and you will also need a good psychologist for him"** Naruto sighed again.

'I got it, I can't do a damn thing to help him… for now at least'

"Why are you sighing when you won?" Hermione asked.

"Ah, well… I was just thinking about something troublesome" he answered.

"Troublesome? You're sounding like a Nara" joked Sakura.

"A Nara?" Harry asked.

"The men of the Nara family are the laziest persons in the world" informed Tenten.

As they joked around the next match was decided, Negi Hyuga against Hinata Hyuga. The match rendered the group silent. Hinata lost badly, but what shocked them was the cruelty of Negi toward her. In the end he finished the match with a decisive attack to her heart, it wouldn't be this dangerous if it wasn't for the Hyuga fighting style, the gentle fist, that consist of attacking inner chakra coils and internal organs. Hinata was in critical condition at the end of the match. That was the second wake-up call for the young wizards about the cruelty the world can show. Naruto immediately went beside Hinata when the match ended, followed by his worried friends. Naruto was enraged at Negi and it took all his self-control to stop himself to attack him. When Hinata was brought by the medical team for emergency treatment Naruto took some of her blood in his hand and pointed his fist at Negi as he swore that he was going down if they fight each other in the exam. Following this Naruto asked Dumbledore if he could help heal Hinata with magic, and stop his friends from seeing the last match as a tacit agreement as it would oppose Gaara of the sand and Rock Lee. And Naruto did well in sending them away as this match was even more brutal, with Lee also ending in critical condition; his legs and part of his spinal bones were crushed.

After that the contestants were told about the month of 'rest' even thought it was really a month of training. They were also told about the match up of the tournament, and Naruto was fighting Negi as the starter match. But he had matters to attend to before training, firstly to tell Karin and the Hokage that she is part of his clan and secondly see if Hinata and Lee were all right.

'It's going to be a long month…' Naruto thought.

**_"_****_You have no idea, kit, you have no idea…"_**

**A/N: Wow, finally finished this chapter. So I don't know how you like it but I have a lot of trouble with what to describe or not in those preliminaries as I didn't change much. Also, to explain why I didn't change Negi's attitude toward Naruto (although it will be ****_way_**** more present in the next few chapters) is because he is still fixed on his 'fate decides everything' period. Sure he saw how Naruto changed when he tagged along in the forest but for him Naruto was called a dead last since he began in the academy so 'destiny' decided he was stuck as a loser. As for when he beat Kiba easily… Well in his eyes a loser beating a loser isn't relevant as he is 'destined' to be a loser all his life. Now that I explained that, don't hesitate to give advice, constructive criticism or just tell what you think. On a side note the votes from chapter 8 end of chapter A/N still stands (as I didn't get any votes I can only assume three things: 1_ You like what I do and let me decide, believing I won't disappoint you (and that would be touching ^^). 2_ You don't really care (I can totally understand). And 3_ Well you don't like me trying to make you participate (Then again I can understand). ) If I don't get any votes I will do as I please, but I will always propose things that I want to try. Well then, hope you enjoyed and see you next chapter ^^**


	10. Chapter 10

The tale of the ninja wizard

Chapter 10: Training and toads?

**A/N: Hi guys, I'm back with a new chapter. Before I do anything else let me answer to things asked in the reviews that I think is important for everyone to know: Firstly, somebody told me he (or she) felt that my story was a bit rushed recently… Well it's my bad, it's true that there were a lot of things happening in the few last chapters but rejoice: this chapter is one when you can catch your breath as it will be calmer. **

**Also I was asked several times if Naruto will use swords and my answer to that is: HELL YEAH! He won't be an expert in swordsmanship, but since I love swords you can expect to see sword fights and characters that specialise in them (but they won't be there just yet so be patient, they ****_will_**** be some) ^^**

**Someone told me (does it bother you guys that I don't put your names? Please tell me for future A/N) that he liked the way Amaterasu and Naruto argues about the 'master' problem. Happy that you like it because it will be a running gag in the story.**

**And finally Thanks to everyone that told me about my mistake with Neji's name that I somehow changed in Negi. I apologize for this mistake that was probably due to me not paying enough attention and the fact that the main character of the manga Negima (Negi) is one of my favourite. I mean come on, how many ten years old can be that badass and powerful (in the end of the manga) ^^**

**Now that this is done, I should warn you again that future chapters might get a bit violent and bloody as I will make fights a bit more credible than "Oh no, I lost my arm but that's alright because I don't bleed at all" to an a bit more detailed version (meaning that I ****_will_**** tell that he bleeds a lot with his arm off, and most of the times I will describe the action the best I can but I will try to not go into the really gory type of things). Just to warn people that doesn't like to see that. Also on the same notice, I won't show any of it but the world in my story is not all light and dark but keep in mind that horrible things do happen in it so don't be shocked if somebody planned or threatened to do horrible things like torture (that I might or might not show in the story though it will get mentioned). That's also where I need help for the rating of the story so warn me as soon as you think I should raise it ok?**

**On another note I would like to precise what I think is a minor crossover for those that didn't understand what I meant by that (I know I'm not very good in explanations ^^ ): A minor crossover, for me, is when you bring elements from over stories and integrate them logically in your story but not just as a cameo but really as a part of the story. For example if I bring a robot from Gundam then it will have a role to play at some point, even if it is only secondary. Same with characters: If I bring someone like Renton from Eureka 7 or Ichigo from bleach then they will play a part in the story and not just cameo's but be brought in it as a ninja or a wizard not as they are from their stories (even though I will try to adapt their past to my story to create some coherence in it). In over words, prepare yourself to see some characters from other manga or series and they might get slightly out of character as the story goes on. You should also prepare yourselves to see some elements from other manga or series (but I'll always do my best to integrate them in the story in a not too illogical way).**

**Well then, let's get on with the story.**

Disclaimer: Can I stop now? I put the disclaimer for nine chapters already, I think you get it don't you? I only own my imagination… There, I said it… again…

"Dialogue"

_"Thoughts"_

'Mental dialogue'

**"Kurama dialogue"**

**_"_****_Kurama thoughts"_**

"**_Spells and jutsus_**"

A month of rest before the final exam, it is useful for the wounded to be back in shape for the last exam so everyone should take it easy and relax. Like that will ever happen with ninjas. The 'month of rest' was often called by others the 'month of training'. Naruto understood that well but surprisingly decided to take it slow the first week: he showed his friends around the village, made them meet with the few people that were friendly to him and spent as much time as possible with Tenten and Anko. He also told Karin about their familial link, much to her disbelief, as well as the Hokage who immediately sent a messenger to Kusagakure. The message was simple and clear: Karin Uzumaki will stay as a Konoha kunoichi at her request, in exchange the village will not take action for concealing and mistreating an Uzumaki, one of the most important ally of Konoha even after the fall of Uzugakure. Kusagakure didn't dare to complain as even though Konohagakure was not as powerful as in the past a war against them meant certain death. After that Naruto and Karin bonded pretty quickly, and Naruto offered her to live in his apartment as he was at Hogwarts most of the time, an offer she almost immediately accepted.

It was a good morning in Konoha, the sun was shining and the birds singing. The entire village was peaceful, all but one apartment that is. Naruto started his morning as usual: he got up, ate breakfast, trained with Kurama before going back to his apartment to take a shower. The problem was with the last part as he totally forgot he wasn't living alone anymore, a mistake that ended with Karin screaming in surprise and hit Naruto with enough force to send him back in the corridor. This brought them to this situation where Karin, now ready, was glaring at Naruto as they sat at the table.

"But since I'm telling you it was an accident" pleaded Naruto.

**"****Albeit an entertaining one"** laughed Kurama. Karin just huffed as she crossed her arms.

"It's been one week already that we live together so I can't see a reason for an _accident_ like this to happen unless it wasn't really an _accident_" Naruto looked shocked.

"I would never do something like that! I'm only not used to live with somebody else, that's all I swear!" She studied him for a few seconds before she sighed and relaxed her posture.

"Yes, I know but please don't ever make a mistake like that again, I thought I would die from embarrassment"

"Of course Karin" he said as he did a mock salute. There was knocking on the door.

"Naruto, it's us" Said the slightly muffled voice of Tenten.

"Come in" he answered. Tenten, Harry, Ron and Hermione entered and went toward them.

"So, how was your morning?" Tenten asked, earning her a blush from Karin and Naruto gaining incredible interest for his window.

"Did something… interesting happened?" she asked slyly, hoping to make fun of the two of them.

"Well, I kind of forgot I wasn't living alone anymore and when I went to take a shower…" He was blushing slightly at this point as Karin blush increased. The others understood from that and Tenten's smile widened as the three wizards blushed slightly as they imagined the scene.

"You didn't get further I hope" Tenten teased, having the reaction she hoped: Naruto and Karin were blushing bright red at the thought. The other two boys stared blankly as Hermione stared at her in shock.

"Of course not!" Karin and Naruto exclaimed at the same time"

"How can you think of that, They're only twelve, far too young to even think of this" exclaimed a shocked Hermione. Tenten turned to her with the same smile plastered on her face.

"But here you knew exactly what I meant compared to your two friends" Hermine blushed bright red.

"Well I love to study and I also stumbled on this particular subject… But that's beside the point!" Tenten sighed.

"What is beside the point is your comment on age. I thought you understood after what you saw at the preliminaries…"

"Understood what?" Harry asked.

"That from the moment we wear our headbands we are not kids anymore but adults ready to put their lives at risk for the village. The ninja academy is not a normal school, we learn how to fight but also all that civilians would learn." Naruto answered.

"As such we know enough about alcohol, drugs and of course we had sexual education. Like Anko-nee always say: Old enough to kill, old enough to drink. And sake is good once in a while." He continued. The wizards stared at him in slight shock.

"You drink?

"No, I don't really like the taste of alcohol and even if I just wanted to get drunk I won't be able to, another side of healing faster than anybody"

"Well, that's weird…" Ron awkwardly said. Naruto suddenly got up.

"Well then, how about we go to an onsen (hot spring)?" The randomness of the question only brought him confusion as an answer.

"Might I ask, Naruto, if you are perhaps thinking about something improper?" Tenten asked menacingly, knowing that some men could become a bit... _curious_ in those situations and there were a few times where some men peeked at the other side before being _corrected_.

"What are you talking about?" he said with genuine confusion, making Tenten sigh in relief.

"Nothing. That sounds like a good idea" she answered.

_"__I forgot he was Naruto, it's not his style… But I suppose I'll have to keep a close eye in case the wizards try something, you never know…"_ she thought with a sadistic smile on her face as she imagined the tortures she will put them through if they ever tried peeping on them. While she was in her dream land, chuckling darkly along the way, the others just stared at her with a sweat-drop and all had one thought:

_"__I don't want to know what is happening in her head"_

When they made it to the onsen, the girls on one side and the boys the other, Naruto took his time and relaxed in the water while he decided to go visit Kurama in his mind space for the first time since the start of the exams. He found himself in an enormous plain with a lake, mountains in the horizon and a few trees. He saw Kurama chained to a gigantic tree by a leash with the kanji for seal on it and who smiled at him as he looked around in confusion.

**"****Hey kit, it's been a while since your last visit"** Naruto quietly nodded as he looked around.

**"****You're wondering what happened in here, right?"** Again a nod.

**"****Simple, the sewer full of water represented your pain, sadness and loneliness. When you cried on Tenten you were able to let go of it, though there is still a big lake but it is definitely more relaxing than a sewer"**

'I don't know what to say… I mean how could Tenten have such an effect on my mind?' Kurama chuckled.

**"****Probably the joy of a family, kit. Even more so because you didn't see her in a very long time. And because your new friends greatly helped you in the mental aspect… And that's saying something"**

'Hey!' Kurama laughed loudly, soon followed by Naruto.

'What was the thing you wanted to talk about, Kurama?'

**"****Huh? Oh, right. The thing is that even though Orochimaru put a seal over the one that contains me I could still see what happened outside, only my chakra was stopped"**

'Cool, so what happened? I was curious about it but Tenten refuses to tell me'

**"****Probably because you will have trouble believing it. Listen carefully: When you passed out I don't know what were your thoughts at that time but it triggered something inside you. You were still unconscious but I sensed a powerful energy circulating inside you. It was superior than chakra and magic but it also felt eerily familiar, with this power your wounds were healed and you kicked that weirdo's ass, and easily too"**

'You're joking!'

**"****Not at all. Seriously, I never saw you fight with so much power… Maybe you should only fight by being unconscious from now on"**

'Oy!'

**"****The main point is: next time you throw a spell try to put a bit of chakra in it. As for jutsus… Well I don't know if it's even possible to use magic without those pathetic sticks they call wands. Though your wand is no laughing matter since being in contact with it can sap ones strength until they are at one inch from death, and it is unbreakable too…"**

'Yeah, thanks for all your help, Kurama. I'll make sure to work on all of that' Naruto said with a big smile.

**"****It seems like our conversation is over, your friends are asking for your attention"** Kurama stated.

"Huh?" Naruto found himself in the hot spring once again, with Ron swinging his hand in front of him.

"You ok there? You spaced out for a moment" Ron said.

"Yeah, I'm fine, I was just too relaxed"

"Ah, totally understandable" said a new voice. Naruto turned to see an aged man with spiky white hair tied in a ponytail with two shoulder-length bangs that framed both sides of his face. He also had red lines that ran down from his eyes and a big grin on his face.

"But are you guys really satisfied with that?" The man continued.

"What do you mean by that?" Ron asked and that made the man's grin to become perverted. Naruto didn't like where this was going.

"Well, there are some fine ladies right next to us so how about a little peek?" He asked as if it was completely normal for people to do that. Ron and Harry blushed bright red at the thought of that while the man felt a chill run down his back and turned to see Naruto glaring at him with killing intent leaking out.

"You better not old man, there is my sister, my cousin and my friend next door. If you try anything I won't hold back, even if I doubt I would win…" The man had an even wider grin, except this time it wasn't perverted.

"Oh? It seems that you heard of my greatness, kid" he boasted.

"In fact I have no idea who you are but I sense a serious loss if I fight with you" Naruto deadpanned. The man's grin dropped slightly.

"Kid's these days… Well I guess I can praise you for figuring our difference in strength" he said with a sigh before he stood up to strike a Kabuki pose, smoke conveniently covering his lower regions.

"I am the great and only Jiraiya of the sannin, the toad hermit of mount Myoboku" Ron and Harry stared blankly at the man while Naruto sweat-dropped.

"Yeah, right. So you are an ero-sennin (perverted hermit)" Naruto said.

"Oy, you should respect your elders, brat!" the man angrily complained.

"Why the hell would I respect a pervert?" Naruto shouted back.

"That's it brat, outside, now!"

"You got it old man!" he answered as they made their way out, leaving two confused wizards still wondering what just happened before following them.

When they went outside they found Naruto in a fighting stance in front of Jiraiya who had his arms crossed and a smug smile on his face.

"Tell you what kid, if you can land one hit on me it will be your win" this only angered Naruto more.

"Don't regret it latter old man"

"What the hell is going on?" Tenten asked Ron and Harry who turned to see the girls were all there.

"Well, I'm not sure but this man pissed off Naruto" Harry answered.

"Wait, isn't he… Why is he going to fight Jiraiya of the sannin, does he have a death wish?" she shouted the last part when she looked at the man. Karin paled when she heard the name while Hermione looked confused.

"Is it really that bad?"

"This man could wipe the floor with most jonins of the village even if they attacked him at the same time so yeah, this _is_ bad" she exclaimed but she didn't try to stop the fight as she knew Naruto won't back down now and was surprised to see Hermione doing the same, though she still had a really worried look on her face.

"Don't worry, leaf shinobis will not seriously harm their peers" Tenten said, calming Hermione a bit, but just a bit.

Naruto knew he had no hopes of winning but luckily Jiraiya put himself in a huge handicap. If one hit meant he won then it was still possible, really hard but possible. The only problem is that he needed to go all out for that but he doesn't want to reveal all his cards before the exam in case one of his potential rivals were spying on him.

'Amaterasu, you are here?'

'Yes master, I am looking from a rooftop and awaiting your order'

'For the moment stay concealed, wait until I have his attention and find an opening to strike'

'Got it master'

'Stop calling me master!'

Naruto stopped his conversation with Amaterasu and concentrated on the man in front of him who was calmly waiting for him to start.

_"__Fine, you want to play it like that? Then we will play it like that"_ He thought.

He activated his **_Half-beast form_** and his **_Blue cloak_** simultaneously before charging at his maximum speed at the man at punched him as strong as he could. The man blocked it with one hand and slightly slid back. He whistled before kicking back Naruto who protected himself with his free arm but was sent back several meters.

"Not bad kid, not bad at all. But frontal assaults won't work on me"

_"__Well shit, I hoped I could at least surprise him and get him off balance but he is crazy strong. My left arm will probably not be able to take many hits like that… and he just gave a light tap dammit!"_

Naruto took out several kunais and shurikens along with his double kunai and threw them all at his opponent who dodged them all with a grin. Grin who grew larger when he saw ten more Naruto with the same jutsus on.

"Well I'll be dammed, the shadow clone jutsu and being able to directly clone them with those two jutsus already activated? Very impressive kid, not many would be able to pull that out" Naruto grinned at the praise.

"You don't know all I'm capable off yet, old man"

"Well then, I'm aching to find out"

Naruto and his clones charged at him, three on his right side, three on his left, two at his back two at his front and one jumped to hit from above. Jiraiya grinned before he made a hand seal and his hair grew bigger until it wrapped around his entire body. The white hair had a steal like appearance as Jiraiya chuckled.

_"__Well this can't be good"_ Naruto thought with a sweat-drop. He and his clones threw a smoke bomb toward their opponent before they were hit by a rain of needle like hair that dispelled the clones and went into Naruto's flesh. Naruto barely felt the needles and continued to rush as he let go of the other smoke bomb he had in his hands, with the falling smoke bombs from the dispelled clones it created a smoke screen strong enough to prevent Jiraiya from seeing anything. Naruto rushed to where he knew stood Jiraiya but had to block a strike to his stomach with his left arm and was thrown away from the smoke. Naruto quickly stood up in a crouched stance before he heard Jiraiya laughing.

"Not bad kid, you almost got me there. Almost that is"

_"__This old bastard…"_ Naruto prepared himself for the second part of his plan.

"You say that but I don't see you do anything else than standing there and hide behind your hair… Are you afraid to attack?" He said as he took the needles out of his body, the wounds healing immediately after.

"Ah, good try but you won't make me angry, I don't even have to move to beat you kid" Naruto had a sly smile on his face.

"You're sure about that old man?"

_"__What is he…? Oh shit!"_ Jiraiya noticed a bit too late the seal at his feet before he was thrown in the air by a wind blast coming from it. _"When did he?"_ he was interrupted in his thoughts as he saw Naruto in front of him as he readied his punch, putting all of his cloak's chakra in his fist.

"Your mine!" He exclaimed as he threw his punch. The sannin tried to guard himself with his left arm but Amaterasu attacked and prevented him from blocking the hit.

_"__This is gonna hurt"_ Jiraiya thought with a sweat-drop just before Naruto's fist collided with his chest, sending him crashing on the ground. Naruto landed and took a fighting stance while Jiraiya looked dumbfounded as he laid on the ground before he broke out laughing. Naruto relaxed and let himself fall in a sitting position on the ground.

"Seems like you won kid" The sannin said as he stood up.

"Yeah right, if you having a one hit handicap and even hold back while I went all out is called a win" Naruto grumbled, making Jiraiya laugh again as the others came closer.

"Don't be like that kid, even with all this I am still a sannin. Landing a hit on me is impressive for a gennin, and you actually caught me off guard with this seal, when did you place it?"

"When I charged in the smoke, and that's what you get for underestimating me, old man" Jiraiya scratched the back of his head as he laughed nervously.

"I guess you're right, but you sure have some potential. Say, you are in the chunin exam right?"

"Dam right I am!"

"So, how about I become your instructor for the month?" Tenten and Karin stared with wide eyes and their jaws threatened to fall off when they heard this. Seeing this reaction Harry and Ron looked confused.

"Why is it so surprising?" Asked Harry.

"Oh, you must be the young wizards I heard about. Without bragging, well not too much anyway, I am one of the legendary sannin. I could wipe the floor with most of the strongest ninja in the village even if they attacked all at once, hence the surprise of the young kunoichi there" Now it was their turn to be shocked by the man's proposition.

"I refuse" Naruto calmly replied. Everyone looked at him in shock, after all he just turned down a chance to be the apprentice of one of the most powerful ninja of the world.

"And why is that?" Jiraiya asked as he recovered from his justified shock.

"Why exactly would I want to be trained by a pervert?" He answered as he started to walk away.

"Even if I tell you I trained the fourth hokage?" Jiraiya smirked when Naruto froze.

'Did this pervert really train the fourth?' Naruto quietly asked Kurama.

**"****As hard as it is to believe, yes he did. I heard he was a good teacher, and don't worry the fourth hokage wasn't a pervert."**

'That's great, I don't know what I would've done if my idol was a pervert' Naruto mentally sighed in relief before he turned around.

"What's the catch?" Jiraiya's smirk grew bigger.

"No catch kid, just good old training. Plus I knew your parents so I can't just leave you to fend for yourself"

"Great, now I can't refuse and you know it. I accept being your apprentice for the month, please take care of me" Naruto said with a polite bow.

"Wow, from what I gathered on you this politeness is suspicious…"

"Yeah, I wanted to try it but I don't feel comfortable at all" Naruto said as he stood up.

"Seems like we both have the same problems with this, I feel like we will get on well with each other" He said as they laughed together. The others all had a sweat-drop and one thought.

_"__What the heck just happened?"_

The next day Naruto was near a river in the forest with Amaterasu on his shoulder and Jiraiya in front of him.

"So, before we start tell me your strong points" Jiraiya demanded.

"I'm good at taijutsu, can't do a genjutsu to save my life thought I can resist and dispel them pretty easily, and I don't know a lot of ninjutsu but have tons of chakra and endurance so it will take a lot to tire me out. I know how to make shadow clones and I have good chakra control."

"Yes, it is impressive that you have good chakra control when you have two different chakra in you" Jiraiya said casually, trying to get a reaction out of Naruto.

"Yeah, it took me some time before I gained enough control with both our chakra but Kurama helped me"

"Wait a second, who is this Kurama?" He asked, hoping the answer wouldn't be what he feared it might be.

"Kurama is the Kyubi" Naruto answered casually as Jiraiya stared blankly.

"So you managed to get into contact with the fox"

"Kurama" Naruto interrupted.

"What?"

"His name is not fox, it's Kurama"

"Ok, so you managed one way or another to contact Kurama who helped you with your training is that right?" Naruto nodded. "How long were you in contact with him?"

"Since I was five years old" Jiraiya was shocked by this.

"Five? Does the hokage know this?" Naruto shook his head.

"You are the first ninja to know I befriended Kurama" Jiraiya stayed silent for a moment.

"Well you sure are full of surprises… Why did you tell me this when even the hokage knows that you are friends?"

"Because last night Kurama told me you were my godfather, and since you didn't really did a good job since I met you for the first time last night I don't think you will tell anybody about a huge secret I trust you with instead of blaming you for leaving me alone all this time" He answered with a small smile that sent shivers into the sannin's back.

"You're right" He said sadly. "I can tell you that I spent all these years trying to hide your existence from your parents' enemies, and it is partly true, but it is mostly because I was scared. I don't know how to raise a kid and a lot of people will agree to say I am not the most… appropriate model for a kid to have while growing up. I know I it doesn't excuse me from leaving you alone and I can't ask for your forgiveness but… I am sorry" Naruto waited calmly until the man in front of him finished.

"I will be lying if I told you I am not even the slightest bit angry at you but if you want to apologize then teach me"

"Huh? Really, that's all?"

"Yeah, I'm alive so if you start acting like my godfather from now on it should be plenty enough."

"I see… Well then I will teach you all that I know, the problem is that one month will not be enough so I have to think of what to teach you…" Jiraiya took some time to think before he suddenly had an idea. "I know, I will teach you how to summon toads!" Naruto stared blankly at him for a while.

"Really? The final tournament for the chunin exam is in less than a month and you are going to teach me how to summon toads?"

"Don't underestimate toads Naruto! But if you don't want to learn the summons the fourth hokage used then it's alright…"

"That's not what I meant, I heard summoning is hard to learn and we don't have much time before the exam and_"

"No whining, you wanted me to teach you then I'm going to teach you then I will. Plus with your chakra reserves and control it should be easy"

Several hours later Jiraiya and Naruto looked at the impressive results of Naruto's summoning: a tiny tadpole.

"… Seriously kid, that's all you can do?"

"Please, just shut up" Answered a defeated Naruto as the tadpole dispelled itself.

"Maybe you just don't have the good feeling?"

"What do you mean?"

"You have trouble seeing toads as impressive summons, right?"

"Well… yeah" Naruto said sheepishly.

"Maybe that will help: The fourth hokage fought the kyubi_"

"Kurama"

"Fought Kurama with the boss toad summon, a toad that was the same height than him"

**"****Yeah, and he was a pain. Not my equal at all but still annoying"**

"Ok, that's impressive" exclaimed Naruto.

"Indeed, just remember that a summon is stronger and smarter than normal animals and as such require a good amount of chakra to call and the stronger the summon the greater the chakra cost"

"I see, there I go!" Naruto performed the same hand-signs he made the last few hour before slamming his hand on the ground and pouring as much chakra as he could. A gigantic puff of smoke appeared and Naruto found himself on top of the head of an equally gigantic toad with a dull, rusty red colour and a brighter red around his eyes, on his lips and on his chest. The toad also had a scar on his left eye and wore a large blue happi vest and carried a massive dosu blade. The toad looked around a bit before he bent his head toward Jiraiya, nearly making Naruto fall from his head from the sudden movement.

"Hey Jiraiya, why did you summon me?"

"It's been a while Gamabunta but I'm not the one who summoned you, the kid on your head did"

"Liar, a brat would never be able to summon me" Gamabunta exclaimed.

"Hey it's true, I signed the summoning scroll and summoned you" Naruto shouted back.

"Ah, like you have enough chakra to do that!"

"In fact he does, and here's his signature" Jiraiya calmly said as he opened the big scroll on his back, showing Naruto's name in it written in blood.

"Well I'm surprised" Gamabunta said, making Naruto grin.

"Hehe, with you fighting by my side I can't lose the chunin exam"

"Huh? It seems there is a misunderstanding, I won't fight for you brat"

"What? Why? I summoned you so doesn't that means you have to listen to me?"

"I don't recognize you as worthy of giving me orders"

"Well if you don't want me to boss you around how about we fight as partners?"

"No way in hell brat, not until you are my equal!"

"What can I do to show you my worth?"

"Heh, if you manage to stay on my head for the next three hours I'll respect you enough to make you my subordinate"

"Only three hours? Deal!" Naruto exclaimed, only to shout in fright when Gamabunta took a giant leap in the air. Jiraiya looked with an amused smirk as he saw Gamabunta laugh as he jumped around while Naruto screamed in fright as he tried to stay on the toad's head by using chakra.

"Well then Naruto, you wanted it so here it is your month of training"

**A/N: Finally finished this chapter. This one was surprisingly hard, I had an enormous writer's block for a long time. Again I am sorry for the wait, and I am sad that there were no votes so I won't propose any other votes for this story. Well then, hope you enjoyed and see you next chapter ^^**


	11. Chapter 11

The tale of the ninja wizard

Chapter 11: The "King of the forest"?

**A/N: Hey guys, I'm back! I don't know if you remember but earlier in the story I mentioned that Anko called him the "king of the forest" since the animals from the forest of death respect and fear him. This chapter will tell how it happened so I don't know how long it will be so let's start now ^^**

**Also I'm sorry for the slow update but big exams are coming so I write this in some of my spare time.**

Disclaimer: This will be the last disclaimer in this story because I am sick of them and you all know it: I don't own Naruto or Harry Potter if not I wouldn't write fanfictions!

"Dialogue"

_"Thoughts"_

'Mental dialogue'

**"Kurama dialogue"**

**_"_****_Kurama thoughts"_**

"**_Spells and jutsus_**"

The month of training is finally over, the next day will be the day of the tournament and every participant were resting to be in top conditions. Discussions about the tournament were all around the village and the two young wizards couldn't wait to see how well their ninja friend will do in them. Yes, two wizards as Harry had to go back to the Dursleys a while back as the only reason he could stay that long to begin with was that the _charming_ family couldn't refuse the time without seeing him. That, the fact they had no idea about ninjas yet and mostly because they didn't plan to travel before August. Since August came Harry had to go back so that the Dursleys could arrange him to stay with Arabella Figg, needless to say he will have fascinating holydays filled with cats, cats, and more cats.

Naruto for his part was really glad that he could rest after the hellish training the toad sage put him through, granted he can't complain with the results of it though he still had a lot to learn. Currently he was relaxing in his apartment as he sat at his table and drinking tea, which he loved the day he tried some prepared by the house elves of Hogwarts. Sitting at his right was Karin reading a book on Konoha's history. At his left Ron was trying to do some of his homework at Hermione's insistence, the girl in question sitting opposite Naruto and re-reading a book on the history of the elemental nations. The silence was only interrupted by Tenten as she sharpened and rearranged her weapons in her scrolls.

"Hey, Naruto" Tenten started.

"Yes?"

"I've been wondering for some time… Why didn't the giant tiger next to our camp attack us? I know you said you have a relationship based on mutual respect but I how did it happen? And to also be able to know the chakra signature of the entire forest…"

"Now that it was brought up, the bear you saved me from seemed afraid of you…" Karin added, making the two wizards stop what they were doing to stare with wide eyes at Naruto as it was the first time they heard about that.

"You really want to know?" He asked.

"Yes!" They all exclaimed.

"Very well, I suppose it started when I was around seven…"

[Flashback]

Seven years old Naruto was camping in the forest around Konoha as night started to fall. He had a large bag full of camping equipment and rudimentary shinobi tools mostly self-made next to him and he was cooking a rabbit he caught earlier until he heard some noise nearby. He immediately went next to his bag in case he had to move out. He concentrated on his hearing and heard a sound that brought him a feeling of dread and rightfully so because the next moment he saw the worst thing that could happen to him. He was facing several bloodthirsty creatures also known as some of Konoha citizens but thankfully there were no ninjas this time so he could escape. The only problem was where to go, since he was in the forest at the outskirt of Konoha he had two choices: First to go farther away from the village but risk to be a target by bandits or missing-nins for a ransom or worse, or he could go to the nearest training ground where no one will pursue him: Training ground 44 also called the forest of death. He quickly evaluated those choices: since the villagers saw him they will follow him the farthest they could and that might drove him _really_ far from the village while going to training ground 44…

"I found the demon, get him!" A man shouted, interrupting Naruto's musings as he chose to run towards the forest of death. Between a possible death between the villagers, bandits and what the training ground can throw at him he will at least deny his pursuers the pleasure of seeing his death. Naruto ran as fast as he could but his bag slowed him down and he was then forced to put some chakra to his feet to outrun his pursuers but even then they were on his heels. After a while he was near the fences of training ground 44 but Naruto didn't expect them to be this tall.

_"__Shit, I won't be able to climb fast enough! It's over…"_ He thought as he continued to run.

**"****No it's not, put all your chakra in your legs and jump"** Kurama intervened.

'But if I do this my legs will_'

**"****I'll heal you so do it!"** The fox ordered and Naruto did so, putting all his chakra into his legs until his chakra network became bright blue from the overflowing chakra and a soft blue mist came from them as he jumped. The villagers stared in shock as the 'demon' they were pursuing made an impossible jump for a kid and most ninjas over the fence, they lost their target and went back after they recovered, after all there is no way a kid can survive the forest of death.

Naruto felt the pain the moment he jumped, his legs were completely broken but he was still amazed that he managed to jump that high as he was even higher than the fence. But he knew landing will be a problem. He felt Kurama healing his legs but it won't be fast enough for the landing and even then they would just break from the impact. Thinking quickly he took some kunais and attached them to ropes he brought with him and prepared himself to throw them.

_"__Not yet"_ He thought as the gigantic trees from the forest grew closer.

_"__Not yet"_ He was going through the branches of several trees, slightly slowing his fall but scraping him badly.

_"__Now!"_ He threw his kunais and grabbed the end of the ropes tightly as he was around twenty meters off the ground. His fall stopped brutally because of ropes but it dislocated both of his shoulders making him let go of the ropes and fall a few meters before he landed on the ground, landing badly on his left arm and breaking it. Naruto was crying, pain coursed through his body and his legs made him suffer hell but he had done it: he was alive.

Naruto immediately started to crawl away from his landing place, he heard rumours about this forest and if the predators of the place were even a sliver of what the rumours told about them he didn't want to meet any. His crawling eventually became limping as Kurama healed Naruto's legs as best as he could after his arm and it was what saved Naruto as he found an enormous cavern and went in it to hide but by doing so he found himself right in front of an enormous leech. He barely had time to duck as the hungry bloodsucker that was Naruto's size jumped towards his face. Naruto spun around and threw one kunai that went through the beast's open mouth and straight in its insides, causing it to trash around and allowing Naruto to jump on its side and desperately slash and stab it to death. Naruto let himself fall on his back to catch a breath after nearly being killed right after he entered the forest.

_"__Seriously, I know that the predators here will be bigger and nastier than before but even the leeches? Was it really the best choice, I wonder…"_

**"****Sorry to disturb you in your rest but maybe hiding yourself better will be a good idea. Not next to a dead body that may bring even more animals for example…"**

'Yeah, you're right' Naruto answered Kurama before he got up and dragged the leech's body far outside the cave before covering its entry and cleaning the rocky ground of any trace of blood as to not draw anymore predators. After all was done Naruto was exhausted, put his bag behind a rock in higher ground and went to sleep next to it, promising himself to get out of this mess as soon as possible.

Several days passed since Naruto went into the forest of death and he swore to never enter the place again until he was ready… If he found the exit in the first place. He quickly learned that once you went in it the forest wasn't going to let you get out easily. No, in this place only the strong survived and even then it was only before someone stronger ate them. As such Naruto had to learn quickly how to survive in the forest and that meant:

1_If something looks edible make sure with at least five different ways that it is edible or there is a good chance a nasty surprise awaits you. Naruto learned that the hard way when he ate a plant that looked perfectly edible even to Kurama only to be forced to stay in the cave he set as his 'home' because of hellish pain due to poison. The scary thing was that without Kurama he would have died.

2_If you get even the slightest feeling that a predator is nearby, run as fast as possible.

3_Never underestimate your prey. This rule was set when Naruto saw the back of a big rabbit and went to kill it… Until it turned around really fast and nearly killed him when it charged Naruto's way to _stab_ him with the _hhorn_ on its head. If something is in this forest then that means it has a mean to survive the ways of this forest.

4_Trust. Your. Freaking. Instinct. In this forest where anything can suddenly try to kill you being in tune with your instinct can save your life in lots of situation. It saved Naruto so much that he was never going to doubt his instinct anymore.

The days passed quickly for Naruto as he tried to survive. One of the things he was really proud of was his ability to make traps, in the academy he always tried to be a clown and thus purposely failed every trap test but the seven years old was proud to say his traps were good enough to prank chunins but against the giant animals of the forest of death it was another story. They mostly just walked through his traps the first few times, forcing Naruto to develop his trapping skills as fast as he could and after four days in the forest he managed to slightly slow most predators down. Like that Naruto had many close calls because of poisonous plants, animals, poisonous animals, carnivorous plants and even a few carnivorous _and_ venomous plants. Naruto only survived because of Kurama, his luck and his adaptation ability.

Naruto spent one full week in the forest of death and was currently exhausted and wounded. Naruto was out to gather several plants to eat and poisonous ones to use for his traps when he heard a pack of wolves. Naruto of course ran in the opposite direction as fast as he could but soon found himself in front of a king sized bear that unfortunately seemed hungry. Of course Naruto tried to run away, but this bear had no intention of letting the child do that. Despite his size the bear was incredibly fast and quickly caught up to Naruto who fought back with all he had when he knew that running wasn't going to work. But it wasn't a fight, the bear grew up in a forest of survival and Naruto only started ninja training for a year, and even though he trained really hard and had to survive the villagers since he was kicked out of the academy he was still a seven year old kid. No it wasn't a fight, it wasn't even a slaughter: it was merely a predator toying with his prey.

Naruto quickly fell, exhausted and too wounded to move. Kurama was desperately healing him but Naruto saw boredom in the bear's eyes and knew as it raised its paw that it was the end for him. He closed his eyes and waited for the blow to come. He heard something crashing but was confused that he felt no pain, was his death so quick the pain didn't even have the time to come? He opened his eyes and they widened in shock as he saw the body of the bear lying on the ground, dead. Naruto slowly got up as his legs were partially healed and saw the bear with several kunais in its neck.

"What the hell is a brat doing here?" asked an angry voice. The child turned around to see a teenager with light brown, pupil-less eyes, violet hair in a short, spiky, fanned-ponytail. She wore a fitted mesh body suit that stretches from her neck down to her thighs and a tan overcoat over this with a purple in-seam and a pocket on each side, a dark orange miniskirt, a dark blue belt and pale grey shin guards. On her forehead was the Konoha headband partially concealed by her hair. Naruto heard of this teenager before and sometimes saw her from afar: She was Anko Mitarashi, one almost as hated as him and one you should not cross with. But Naruto didn't care about any of that right now because this girl saved him from his impending death and from the forest of death as her anger to find him here told him.

"You're deaf brat? What the fuck are you doing here?" She asked again as she went next to him. Naruto did the only thing he could at the moment: he broke down in tears as he hugged Anko, much to her surprise, as he told her everything that happened to him between sobs. It wasn't really intelligible but she heard several things clearly: Villagers, hunted, hide, forest, a week, scared. Anko then put the pieces together and vaguely understood what happened to this kid that the hokage sent several squads of ninja to find over the week. Now most people thought she was a, as they say it, 'cold-hearted bitch' but she was very far from that despite the front she put on. And hearing that a seven years old kid was treated worse than her by the villagers, hunted down and went to hide in the freaking _forest of death_ of all places and managed to survive _one goddam week_ created a mix of several emotions: She was angry towards the villagers with how they treat this kid, impressed that the same kid had the guts to escape in this training ground and lived to tell the tale. She also felt compassion toward this kid that, she admitted, had it harder than her so she allowed him to hug her and she actually hugged him back as she tried to calm him down. A while passed before Naruto calmed down and Anko immediately broke the hug, grabbed his shoulders and stared straight at his eyes.

"Listen kid, if you ever tell someone what happened just now I'll make sure you find hell a nice place to relax. Understood?" She threatened but to her great surprise the child in front of her didn't cower in fear but rather smiled at her and nodded.

"Ok, that's the least I can do to thank you. But why do you act as if you are cruel when you are really nice?" He asked innocently, making Anko stare at him with wide eyes.

"What do you mean by nice damn brat?"

"Well you just saved me despite having no reason to, and you even let me cry on you and hugged me back. You can't be bad" Naruto stated. Anko just shook her head at that.

"Either way that's how I roll so don't say anything about that hug: it was a one-time thing because of the circumstances. Now hop on and let's leave this place before another animal come alright?" She said as she presented her back for Naruto to climb on, or jump on when she mentioned the forest's animals. And that was how Naruto finally got out of the forest, clinging to Anko in fear as the teenager gave him a piggyback ride toward the village. At this time Anko had no idea how close Naruto and she will be.

Naruto gladly went back to the academy where all the students thought he was just skipping class while their teachers knew he was in danger and all of them, except Iruka, were depressed he didn't die. Four days later Naruto came in a clearing in the forest surrounding Konoha to train when suddenly he had to dodge a kunai.

"Who's there?" He asked, knowing full well that his aggressor wasn't likely to answer but you never know: stupid people are numerous. His answer came in the form of another kunai aiming for his right shoulder's joint that he barely dodged before coming face to fist to his aggressor. He took the blow square on his face and it nearly broke his nose in the process. Naruto tried to punch back but was already destabilized by the sudden punch and easily slammed to the ground.

"How in hell did you survive in the forest of death kid?" He heard a familiar voice and looked to see the face of Anko, with an angry scowl on it.

"Traps and luck?" He tried and Anko scoffed at that.

"Yeah, you must have used enough luck to be drained of it for several lifetimes. But we are going to change that"

"What?" Confusion was written on Naruto's face and Anko smirked.

"Oh, nothing much, I'm just going to tor_ train you"

"You were going to say torture right?"

"Nope"

"Yes, you were…"

"Well, the training will help you, but it won't be a nice walk in the park kid. Well of course I can go back and forget about this…" She said with a smirk.

"No wait! I'll take the training. But I'll still be alive at the end right?"

"Why yes of course, you will survive the _training_ but today I came for another reason" Anko now sported a sly smile that made Naruto nervous as his instincts told him to run away.

"Today is not _training_ but _punishment_ for being stupid enough to go to the forest of death without authorisation when you are just a _brat_. If you survive today we will begin training, is that ok?"

"I… don't have a choice, do I?"

"Nope~" She sang with an innocent smile and Naruto realized one thing: Anko _could_ be a bit sadistic and crazy when she wanted. After one hour poor Naruto was found on the ground as an exhausted mess, he discovered that Anko was a chunin and that she was perfectly able to wipe the floor with him as she literally showed him at one point of the _punishment_. In the end Anko was surprised yet again, although he clearly suffered when she punished him he didn't scream, cry or protest. He just kept a calm face through it all as if this was nothing… This though brought a chill go down her spine: No child should have that much pain tolerance but this only further proved that the villagers hatred toward Naruto was on a whole new level.

"Hey kid, how come you stand pain so much?" She asked, but was met by silence. Annoyed she asked again and went to glare at Naruto but stopped when she saw him sleeping with a small, peaceful smile. She gently took him back to his apartment, having to dodge several traps in doing so, and placed him on his bed. She smiled softly as she brushed some hair on his face. "Well kid, for better or for worse we outcast will stand together" she stated before leaving him to rest, after all he will need it for his future training.

And that was how Naruto began to train with Anko and as time passed the closer they became. The training received from both Kurama and now Anko made Naruto grow stronger at alarming rates and soon Anko decided that he was ready to go back in the forest of death. His training in the forest was… intense: Survival training, sparing against Anko, playing _Anko style_ tag (meaning if you are catch it will probably be painful), hunting and at the end _living_ in the forest. Years passed by and Naruto managed to grow strong enough to live in the forest and, because of Kurama, was able to change his status in it from prey to predator. It was when he was ten years old though that he became the 'king of the forest'.

The day started fairly normally for Naruto, he trained the morning with Kurama in the forest of death, made sure to play his role as the clown of his class by hiding his abilities, and he was going to train with Kurama tonight because Anko was on a mission. Thinking about Anko brought a smile to his face as after spending so much time together they had a close little brother/big sister relationship. They both learned from each other, though Naruto was the _student_ of Anko he managed to help her improve her skills, he wasn't called the unpredictable king prankster for nothing after all… Though she mainly learned how to teach. Naruto was looking for an animal to hunt when he fell on an interesting sight: A bear was trying to kill a baby white tiger that was gravely wounded at his right front leg. Naruto acted purely out of instinct and sent three kunais laced with a deadly poison that paralysed and killed the bear instantly. The last thing the young white tiger saw as he fell unconscious was Naruto coming toward him.

_"__Seriously, after me a baby white tiger. Are the bears this forest's bullies?"_

**"****Not really kid, the environment just made them extremely aggressive"** Kurama informed.

'No shit Sherlock, I totally missed that.' Naruto shot back sarcastically as he carried back the white tiger to his training camp which, ironically, was the cave he stayed at the first time he was in the forest. Now the cave was the perfect place for hiding and with all the traps he put around, and he was now _much_ better with them, most of the forest's animals learned to stay away from the area. So as he arrived in his converted home he set the white tiger on some bed sheet and took out medical supplies. Naruto wasn't a medic but he learned a few things that didn't need chakra and he managed to bandage the wound correctly. Naruto sat on the rock ground next to his 'patient' and sighed.

'I wonder why I never saw many white tigers… And the only ones I saw were giants too!'

**"****Yes, it ****_is_**** weird since this one must already be three to four years old."**

'Then how come he's tiny?'

**"****Hell if I know, why don't you ask him when he wakes up?"** Kurama asked with sarcasm dripping out of his voice.

'Why not? You could act as a furry translator! The great nine tails furry translator… How's that for a title?' Naruto teased with a big grin on his face. One of Kurama's eyes twitched in annoyance.

**"****I so hate you sometimes brat…"** Kurama growled out as Naruto couldn't contain his laugher anymore but stopped abruptly when the young tiger woke up.

"Well hello there little guy" The blond beamed at the seemingly confused animal.

It has been six months since Naruto took in the white tiger that he named Kori (Ice) and now he understood why he never saw a young white tiger of training ground 44: They are small the four first years of their life but have a massive grow spurt making them grow several meters in mere months. As proof Naruto was currently hunting _riding_ on a four meters tall Kori. The young jinchuriki freaked out at first when he saw how fast his new friend grew but since he saved his life Kori never threatened him. Kori was strolling through the forest with nearly no sound as Naruto tried to find their dinner, or dinners as Kori had to eat a lot.

"Ah, over here!" The blond suddenly exclaimed as he saw a five meters tall bear, that wasn't so rare in the forest since predators of all size was in it. Kori didn't need anything more to be said as he was used to hunt with Naruto by now and charged the bear with a roar, Naruto no longer on his back. The bear turned around at the challenged it received and charged towards Kori. The two powerful beasts slammed into each other with enough force to create a small blast of wind before the two were thrown back because of their near equal strength, a fact that shocked the older bear. Kori strike with his right foreleg, claws all out but the bear narrowly dodged the fast strike before he lunged at Kori to bite his neck. Kori countered by a backhand strike with the same paw that threw the bear to the ground. The bear had no time to get up before it was wrapped in wires that it couldn't break no matter how hard it trashed around. Naruto Jumped back on Kori's head and sat down.

"Seems like fifteen chakra wires are enough to catch bears of this size… Interesting. You want to finish him?" He asked Kori who answered by cutting the bear's throat with the only paw he used in the fight. "Show off" Naruto teased and received a sudden and short breath of air that sounded like a scoff from the tiger. As they started to go back to the cavern, after Naruto sealed the dead bear in a scroll, they heard a frightening roar that froze them on the spot. They turned around to see the biggest bear they ever even heard about: The beast was about ten meters tall, had dark grey fur and had a lot of scars on its body with a big one over his right eye. All of this was a testament of its strength, and they were apparently targeted by this powerful beast.

"Just great… Why have I done in my previous life to merit all of this?" Naruto grumbled as he jumped on a nearby tree and took out real kunais and shuriken, courtesy of Anko as academy student weren't supposed to have real weapon until their last year, all laced with poison. The strategy he and Kori had was simple: Kori, being a big predator, will attract the attention of their opponent and fight them straight on while Naruto set up traps and threw poison coated weapon to facilitate the kill, if it doesn't kill. The problem here? They weren't used to fighting beasts that were tall enough to make Kori look like a kitten next to them; intelligent creatures and creatures that had enough strength to stay alive long enough to have a lot of scars… Basically everything that this bear was. So it wasn't really a surprise when Kori was sent several meters backwards in one strike, and fortunately the bear didn't use his claws and seemed content to toy with his prey. Naruto moved around to his left side and threw several kunais toward its neck but the bear easily dodged them.

_"__So it is strong, fast and smart since he wouldn't have needed to dodge the kunais if they weren't coated in poison… We are so screwed…"_ Naruto thought before he had to jump to another tree as the one he stood on moments before was easily destroyed by the giant beast. Kori jumped back into battle with a roar and changed tactic by using his cat-like agility to go close to the bear and try to wound it. Unfortunately for them the bear was the more experienced fighter so Kori only managed to give it minor wounds. The fight went on like that for a while, the bear toying with them as they desperately tried to find a way to survive. A way Naruto found by sheer dumb luck. As He circled around the bear while throwing kunais and shurikens a few of them managed to hit the bear… all on its right side.

_"__So its right eye really is blind… bastard did a bloody good job to hide it"_ He thought before he jumped on Kori to tell him to attract the bear's attention on its left. Kori then proceeded to pounce at the left side of the bear's neck, the sudden seemingly suicidal move startled the beast, allowing Kori to furiously bite its neck and did his best to keep his hold on it. While this happened Naruto took out his last poison laced kunai and put on the handle all of the paper bombs he had, twenty. Now came the hard part: Naruto had to climb toward the right side of the bear's head, while it is thrashing around by Kori's diversion… Naruto managed to climb the bear, though he nearly fell more than thirty times, and stood next to its right eye. He immediately stabbed the kunai as far into the eye as he could, making the bear roar in pain. Kori took advantage of this to jump away, tearing a small part of the bear's throat with him as Naruto jumped on the tiger. He turned toward the giant bear that started to pull itself up as he made a hand-sign.

"See ya, fucker!" He shouted as the paper bombs activated, casting an enormous explosion of gore as three quarters of the bear's head was blown off, leaving a part of its left side hanging on the floor. Kori and Naruto received a shower of blood on them, much to their annoyance. A beaten up Kori glared at him.

"What? At least we are alive so let me seal its corpse before we go and clean ourselves. After what this bastard put us through I'll be damned if I don't have the satisfaction to eat him" Kori grunted in agreement at that. After the beast was sealed and they took a _very_ long bath to take all the blood off them, they went back to their camp. When night came they ate in silence the meat of the ten meters bear first with a vengeance. However the silence was disturbed by a new voice.

"Hey ki_ What the hell?" Anko exclaimed when she saw the carcass of the ten meters bear that Kori was currently eating. "The fuck is with the bear? You killed it?" She asked incredulously.

"Well duh! What does it look like?" Naruto shot back with sarcasm.

"Do you have any idea of what you have done?"

"Killed a pain in the ass, that nearly killed us by the way"

"Yeah, well this 'pain in the ass' is just the tallest predator of the forest. Hell it was even called the king of the forest by several people" she stated.

"You're shitting me!" He exclaimed but she just stared at him.

"You think I would be joking about that? They just decided to put a prime on its head and I planned to go after it tomorrow god damn it!" Naruto stared blankly at her, then he grinned widely as he turned toward Kori who was listening to the conversation at this point.

"You heard that big guy? We killed the strongest predator in here, that makes us the strongest now!" He exclaimed excitedly. Anko smiled slyly before she put an arm on his shoulders.

"Aw, my Little brother is growing up, how cute!"

"Ah, stop it!" Naruto shouted in embarrassment.

"No way, oh and since you killed the 'king of the forest' how about I give you this title. You know, as sign that you are growing" She said with a grin as Naruto stared blankly at her.

"You're… not serious, are you?" She nodded. "Oh come on, you're not seriously going to call me this?" She nodded again.

"Yup, it sounds perfectly childish for those that don't know or won't believe you killed this bear, and since I'm the only one to know and you ate the proof…" She started with a sly smile.

"Oh fuck me…" Naruto said as he put a hand on his face in desperation.

[Flashback end]

There was silence in the room as everyone stared blankly at Naruto.

"So she gave you this title to… tease you?" Ron finally broke the silence. Naruto nodded silently.

"After you killed a bear ten meters tall when you were ten?" Hermione asked and again Naruto nodded.

"That was the strongest predator of the forest and was even called the king of the forest?" Karin asked, another nod. "No wonder the bear was scared…" She muttered to herself.

"I so wish I was there to see the explosion!" Tenten exclaimed with stars in her eyes, making everyone sweat-drop at the weapon mistress except Ron who blushed a bit when he saw her expression but it calmed quickly though Naruto caught him from the corner of his eyes.

_"__Interesting Kurama,, can you remind me to tease him later if it really is happening?"_

**"****Definitely"** The fox said with a… well, foxy grin.

"Yes, well I'm sure you can test that somewhere… Far away… _Really_ far away, and I mean it big sis" Naruto broke Tenten's train of thought.

"Ooooooh, you're no fun ototo"

"You won't be saying this when I run the show at the tournament" Naruto smirked.

"And you won't tell us what you learned?" Karin asked.

"No spoilers" He simply stated. "You will all see tomorrow" He finished with a grin.

**A/N: Finally the chapter is over! It's my first try at a flashback so I really wonder about what you think about it. Also I will answer here what may be asked about the chapter:**

**How can Naruto jump this high when he is seven years old? Remember when in canon Kakashi said that a twelve years old Naruto had ****_four_**** times his chakra, so four times the chakra reserve of a retired ANBU captain still considered one of the top jonin of Konoha. And that was in canon where Naruto wasn't friend with Kurama and trained with his help. So here he has obviously a larger chakra reserve than canon seven years old Naruto, that and the villagers that wants to harm him is a good motivation to surpass his limits. And he can't die of chakra exhaustion even if he tried because he is an Uzumaki, who are considered chakra monsters, and have Kurama sealed inside him and the fox is basically a mass of chakra.**

**How can he climb the ten meters tall bear without tree climbing? Well he went the good old fashion way.**

**Why didn't Anko teach him tree climbing? Well in canon Naruto I got the feeling that a normal, fresh out of the academy student would be at what our world ninja could do and the three academic jutsus. So that would explain why even Sasuke the revered emo didn't know tree climbing either. Basically here the fresh and new gennins who are not part of a clan would only know the basic taijutsu, how to use shuriken and kunais, how to do traps and of course how to be stealthy. Because of Anko, Kurama and his life fresh gennin Naruto of this story is: High gennin-middle chunin level in taijutsu depending of if he use his chakra cloak or not; high jonin chakra reserves; high gennin chakra control; low gennin genjutsu; low ANBU in traps (I mean he ****_did_**** manage to prank ANBU in my story; high jonin in stealth; high gennin in accuracy (Anko and the forest of death made sure of that). It may seem a lot but he ****_was_**** trained by Anko in the forest of death to the point, as I said, that he could live in it (though his giant tiger friend helped a lot in that aspect).**

**So then again I hope you enjoyed and see you next chapter ^^**


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12: The third part of the chunin exam

**A/N: Hey guys, I'm back! So this time the tournament is finally here and Naruto will be able to show what he learned in one month and he learned a lot more than just summon toads (witch he didn't even think to use in canon while fighting Neji by the way). After all shadow clones are the god sent for training if one can spawn a thousand of them like Naruto so he learned a lot in this one month while still having some time for his friends and family. Yes, Naruto is going to be really powerful when he goes back to Hogwarts since he won't have to hide he is a ninja anymore and will be able to use shadow clones freely, boosting his training to new degrees. But as powerful as he might be it doesn't mean he has the experience of seasoned ninja like Jiraiya and he has to train his body himself so he will not be as overpowered as you might think. Now then let's start this chapter!**

"Dialogue"

_"Thoughts"_

'Mental dialogue'

**"Bijuu (Great beast) dialogue"**

**_"_****_Bijuu thoughts"_**

"**_Spells and jutsus_**"

Finally it was there, the event that everyone was waiting for: the tournament and third part of the chunin exam. And this time the exam brought more spectators than ever. This success can be explained by the fact that the last Uchiha was participating in it but this time what interested the spectators even more were the wizards that came to see the fights. All of them were members of the wizard's governments around the world or important figures, a few even came with their children despite being warned about the violence of the exam. Hiruzen Sarutobi, the Hokage, was there to welcome each of them in his village and showed them their seats near the Hokage's booth and with extra security consisting of ANBU as important guests.

"You sure seem busy today my old friend" a familiar voice said, making Hiruzen turn towards Dumbledore.

"Ah Albus, I was wondering when you would come… By the gods, what are you wearing?" He asked with a sweat-drop. The wizards often came with long robes of different colours making them look come from another time but the old wizard was in a category of his own: He was wearing a bright blue robe and pointy hat with little clouds and suns on it.

"Why, I was feeling quite cheerful today and it was a present from an old student of mine" The wizard beamed while Hiruzen had a deadpanned expression.

_"__It was definitely a joke present… I fear I will never fully understand him"_ His thoughts were interrupted by the appearance of the Kazekage, the leader of the sand village and currently ally of Konoha and he went to greet him as the fighters entered the arena.

Naruto entered with the others and observed the spectators. The place was full and he could see his friends waving at him and he waved back but what really caught his attention were the wizards. They all had long robes of different colours like green, red or black but two of them were more noticeable than any others. The first one was of course Dumbledore, and it made Naruto wonder about the sanity of his school's headmaster. But the second wizard that attracted his attention was a kid about one year younger than him if he had to guess. What brought his attention on this young wizard were again his clothes: the boy had a light tanned skin, brown hair, blue eyes and was wearing a red-and-white jacket with a blue zipper, dark cut-off jeans and red-and-white shoes. In other word was one of the most normal looking wizards he ever saw. Looking at him more intently Naruto noticed he had a bored look on his face as an adult talked to him but in his eyes there was a hint of sadness and anger. He was so focused on the boy that he missed the Hokage's introduction speech until he heard something about his teammate.

"Sasuke Uchiha is disqualified for failing at being on time but he will still fight against Sabaku no Gaara to test the latter's skills. Their fight will be postponed at the end of the first round of the tournament." This brought a smile to Naruto as he heard several people stating their disapproval, mostly civilians. Geko Hayate, their sick looking proctor, came towards them.

"The rules are the same as in the preliminaries, if I say to stop then you stop" he said between coughs as he looked longer at Gaara. "Uzumaki Naruto and Hyuga Neji stay here, the rest go to the waiting room." As the others walked away Neji turned to Naruto.

"You should give up, your fate is to lose to me" Naruto stared at him blankly.

"Really? You're going to use fate against me?" He asked as Amaterasu landed on his shoulder and tilted her head on the side.

"Nobody can defy fate therefore you will never be able to beat me. Since your birth you were fated to be the dead last, a loser, and today fate sent me to beat you" There was a short silence before Naruto and Amaterasu fell on the ground laughing, making Neji's eyebrow twitch in annoyance.

"Ah, sorry, sorry. I shouldn't laugh at your stupidity" He said as they got up as if nothing happened.

"What did you say?" Neji glared as his byakugan activated.

"You say that my fate is to lose? If you are sent by fate then I'll win without any problem… Because I always fought the fate others tried to impose to me."

"What do you mean?" Neji demanded as he slightly narrowed his eyes.

"That the _fate_ you're talking about is just empty words to make you feel good about yourself"

"You are a fool to think you can defy fate" Neji announced as he took the juken (gentle fist) stance.

"Damn, your life must be boring as hell… By the way did fate tell you to have a stick up your ass or is it just natural? Naruto asked with a smirk, making several people laugh as Neji glared intensely at him.

"Uzumaki Naruto against Neji Hyuga, Hajime!" The chunin exclaimed but they didn't move. Naruto then turned his head towards Amaterasu.

"Hey girl, mind if you leave me beat some sense into this idiot alone?" The Hyuga gritted his teeth.

'Not at all but be careful master' She said as she flew towards his friends.

'Stop calling me master!' He exclaimed before facing Neji.

"My, you sure are polite for a ninja… but I'm not" Naruto said before his opponent got blasted to his left by a blue light as a loud bang resonated in the arena before the clone who cast the spell revealed itself, surprising most people in the audience for different reasons.

"What happened? How couldn't I see your clone?" Neji asked in shock, bringing the question that most ninja and civilian had in mind.

"Quite simple actually, I made a shadow clone without a hand sign" Naruto started.

"And I cast the disillusionment charm on myself as I was created, and your byakugan can only see chakra" continued the clone.

"But what makes you think…" Naruto said.

"That there is only one clone?" The two ended in unison, causing Neji's eyes to widen as the crowd stared in shock.

"Do not presume that such trick will change your fate!" The Hyuga exclaimed as he charged Naruto only to stop as the two disappeared.

"Do you know what is the biggest flaw of dojutsu and kekkei genkai users?" Neji turned to his right where he heard the voice.

"It is their overreliance of them" Now it was from his left.

"It makes them forget alternatives" Now in front.

"And makes them think of their gift as unbeatable" Behind.

"When they are just predictable." Several voices stated all around him and at different distances.

"Do not brag when you are only good to hide" Neji said angrily.

"Are you serious?" Asked a revealed Naruto with his wand in his right hand. "You do realise that hiding and fighting dirty are in the job description, right?"

"And you are an idiot for showing yourself!" He shouted as he threw five kunais but before they touch him he raised his wand and several rays of blue light coming from several directions transformed the weapons into flocks of blue birds that attacked him from all sides. Neji easily defended himself from the birds thanks to his byakugan but they distracted him for a second and that was all Naruto needed to finish some hand signs.

"Katon: Gokakyu no jutsu (Fire style: great fireball technique)" He shouted as he propelled a fireball twice Neji's side toward him. As he jumped to his left to avoid the jutsu he got hit by another knockback jinx that sent him backwards towards the unveiled Naruto. He turned in mid-air and blocked the strike that would have hit his temple before he struck the surprised Naruto, who grinned as he exploded. Neji was again sent backwards but he managed to get back on the ground, only to have chakra wires suddenly wrap around him and bring him back to the ground.

"What?" Neji exclaimed in shock, not believing he couldn't see anything with his byakugan. Naruto then revealed himself as he dispelled his clones, showing ten clouds of smoke around Neji, ten clones that surrounded him. Naruto slowly walked toward him.

"It's simple really, I planned each move before the match even started" He calmly stated as the crowd stayed silent, the civilians and ninja couldn't believe that a Hyuga revered as a genius lost and the wizards were just curious about what he planned. "It started when I tried, and managed, to make you angry. An angry opponent is often sloppier in their fighting style but even if you weren't I could deal with it. I knew your byakugan won't be able to see magic thanks to a little help I had this month, so that's why I used the disillusionment charm. Also I made sure you knew I could create shadow clones without hand signs and that I could cloak them at the same time to create an unknown factor: A guy like you who is too reliant and proud of his dojutsu and thinks he is fated to win will hate an unknown factor. To finish I made sure to reveal a clone so you could have a target to focus on. I distracted you with the birds from the Avifors spell to send a fireball at you to send you in a knockback jinx toward my visible clone that was going to hit you. You dispelled it exactly as I hoped you would and went straight to the seal I placed and concealed where I thought you would stop yourself though I also had one to where you would be if you didn't stop your fall. But I honestly had several other strategies to defeat you and backup plans for each of them." There was silence as everyone took in what he said. Neji's eyes widened as he realised that the whole battle was in Naruto's palm when he thought that he was fated to win, he the genius Hyuga.

"It seems fate chose to make you win" He finally said, causing a tick mark to appear on Naruto's head.

"No you moron, that's just what happens when you half-ass your training because you think you are _fated_ to win" The Hyuga scoffed.

"You know nothing about fate. Do you know why I _know_ fate is decided at birth? It is be_"

"I swear on every Bijuu that exist that if you use the **_caged bird seal_** as an example I'll knock you out"

"How do you know about this seal?" He exclaimed in shock as Naruto crouched besides him.

"Hinata told me about it when I asked why her _cousin_ treated her like that in the preliminaries. And trust me I know what it is like, Sabaku no Gaara also knows what it is like." The gourd wearing sand shinobi looked interested. "Things are sometimes forced onto us but to call it fate is bullshit. Besides you are contradicting yourself, following your logic you would be fated to always be beneath the main house members yet you defeated Hinata." Naruto stood back up. "If it's this seal that bothers you then I will change the Hyuga once I become Hokage so that there are no more people like you." Neji stared at him in shock as he walked away.

"Winner: Uzumaki Naruto" Hayate said with a grin as a Hyuga finally got his ass kicked because of his arrogance. His friends and a few others started clapping before the whole arena shook themselves out of their shock and cheered loudly at his victory. Naruto looked around wide eyed before a huge grin made his way to his face.

In the Hokage booth Hiruzen had a smile on his face.

"I see he learned a lot at your school, Albus"

"Naruto is a resourceful student but I'm afraid his growth potential was reduced because of having to hide his abilities. Although he is one of the top student in his age group, the spell he used to conceal himself is not one that is taught until the NEWT level classes because of certain _temptations_ the spell might create." The wizard answered.

"It seems he takes his shinobi career seriously, I wonder how he could have been the dead last of his class" Said the Kazekage, to that Hiruzen simply answered.

"Deception is one of the shinobi's best weapon" Making his two guests nod.

'Well done master, that was impressive' Amaterasu exclaimed as she went to perch herself on his left shoulder.

'Thanks, but please stop calling master'

'Everything you want… except this master' Naruto sighed as he went to the waiting rooms, Neji was taken somewhere by Hiashi Hyuga, the head of his clan. Shikamaru and Shino came to him.

"You really are one of the most troublesome people I met, not many plan that much" Shikamaru said as Shino nodded.

"That was impressive Naruto-san" Naruto smiled.

"Thanks guys, but I barely showed everything I have just yet, I have strategies for everyone here though I have no idea how they'll work."

"Troublesome, if I didn't know better I would think you are a Nara. We should play a game of shogi one day." He said with a smirk that Naruto mirrored.

"With pleasure, I also have a wizard friend that I would like to introduce you another day, with a bit of practice I bet he could give you a run for your money in shogi." Before the young Nara could answer they heard the proctor call the next match between Shino and the sand shinobi with the black suit with cat ears, what he calls war paint and his puppet on his back. The puppeteer forfeited his match making Shino frown. Shikamaru tried to get away from his match with the giant fan wearing kunoichi but got pushed in the arena by Naruto. The spectators were first annoyed about Shikamaru's unwillingness to fight but quickly got sucked into the match between the two strategists despite the fact it was a long battle. It ended with the Nara giving up when he caught his opponent in his jutsu because he didn't have enough chakra to maintain it. Naruto was going to congratulate him when his jonin sensei appeared with Sasuke in a swirl of leaves.

"We didn't miss anything did we?" Kakashi asked the proctor who just gave him a deadpanned look.

"No, not really, the fight between Uchiha Sasuke and Sabaku no Gaara got pushed back to the end so you are just in time." Sasuke gained a smirk hearing that. "But since he failed the simple task to be on time he is disqualified and his fight will only serve to show the abilities of Gaara that will pass to the next match even if he loses." The chunin said between coughs, wiping Sasuke's smirk of his face. The jonin sighed.

"I knew it will end like that and I warned you" He tiredly stated to the Uchiha who scowled.

"How dare they do that to me, the last Uchiha?" He exclaimed loudly. Naruto face-palmed when he heard him. He looked at Gaara and saw the murderous look on his face.

"Oy Gaara! Don't kill him or make irreparable damage, if you do I will not fight you." Gaara scowled before he sent Naruto a glare. And now that Naruto was close he could see the kanji for 'love' etched on the left side of his forehead.

"Fine Uzumaki, but mother will have your blood." He stated before he appeared in the arena in a burst of sand. The two other sand gennins were shocked, their brother never, _never_ renounced on killing someone so for him to actually accept that said a lot about how much he wants to fight Naruto. The match between Sasuke and Gaara was… disappointing at best, pathetic at worst. Gaara didn't allow Sasuke to come too close and his sand protected him from any attack of the leaf gennin. Sasuke seemed angry that none of his attacks made through his defence and continued his onslaught without any real plan. After a few minutes of hopeless fighting Sasuke stood still to prepare his new and ultimate jutsu: The **_Chidori_** (One thousand birds), a high concentration of lightning chakra in the user's hand making a sound similar to many birds chirping, hence the name. The technique is the only original jutsu of Hatake Kakashi and is extremely dangerous, but only in good hands. Sasuke's inexperience with the technique shows as he charged at Gaara in a straight line, the speed that the jutsu brings being too much for him to manage. Gaara just had to create a blunt edged spear out of solidified sand in his path to hit him straight on his head and knock him out, showing to everyone that being linear in a battle can kill you unless you are _really_ fast enough and Sasuke was obviously not even close to Kakashi's speed.

"Uzumaki Naruto against Sabaku no Gaara" The proctor called out. Naruto shunshined in the arena where Gaara stood with his arms crossed. They stared at each other, Amaterasu flying above Naruto. "Hajime!" As soon as the words went out Naruto dodged Gaara's sand and took out his wand in his right hand as ten clones appeared and surrounded Gaara. The sand gennin surrounded himself in a thick ball of sand as several kunais with explosive tags and jinxes went his way, none making a dent in his defence. Naruto and his clones had to dodge blasts of sands as Amaterasu tried to drill her way through with her **_crimson spiral_** while he thought about his next step.

'So he can control sand easily and doesn't rely only on his sight to attack since he protects himself in a huge a solid sand ball. What do you think Kurama?'

**"****You don't have a lightning jutsu strong enough to beat his sand. You could use your ****_suiton: teppodama_**** (water style: gunshot) to make his sand heavy and stop hinder him but it will take too long and we don't know how much it will affect him. The best bet would be to blow it up"**

'And I have just what I need for that' He answered with a grin as he pointed his wand towards the sand ball.

"**_Reducio_**!" The gigantic ball suddenly shrink, making Gaara soften a small part of the inside to avoid being crushed but his protection suddenly exploded. First was the big explosion of the solidified and uniform sand ball quickly followed by the multitude of smaller explosions of every grain of sand surrounding Gaara who fell to the ground, his **_sand armour_** completely destroyed. The audience stood in shock once again, knowing the reputation Gaara had by coming back from even B-ranked mission unscathed.

"That was really clever of him." Dumbledore stated, attracting the attention of both Kages near him. "**_Reducio_** and **_Engorgio_** are spells to reduce and increase the size of the target but if forced too much it will explode. Naruto cast **_Reducio_** on his opponent's defence and made it explode." Hiruzen nodded in understanding.

"So the small explosions must have come from grains of sand by Gaara's tentative to avoid being crushed by softening the inside of the ball. The spell already being on them…" Dumbledore nodded.

"It is worrisome the applications Naruto finds to spells that are not made for causing harm to others but I suppose it is a good thing in your line of work." Their attention was brought back to the fight as Gaara gave a loud scream that was nearly animalistic.

"Mother will have your blood Uzumaki Naruto! I will prove m**y existence!**" He shouted as his voice became darker and more feral as sand converged onto him: he was beginning to release Shukaku. As the sand took form over his right arm, taking the shape of Shukaku's arm. Naruto started to charge only to stop when he saw the crowd falling asleep except a few. In a short period all hell broke loose: sand and sound ninjas attacked Konoha's forces, the Hokage and Dumbledore were fighting the Kazekage who revealed himself as Orochimaru and more sand and sound forces invaded the village with giant snake summons. It was a good invasion plan and would have caused a lot of casualties… if Konoha wasn't prepared. It started with a ninja named Kabuto taking his exam for the seventh time, now the exam might be hard but to fail that much you have to be hopeless or doing it on purpose so he was followed. Nothing was reported when a ninja tailed him but Hiruzen had a bad feeling, especially when Orochimaru was reported to have appeared in the second part of the exam so he asked a favour from Dumbledore and the old wizard personally spied on the suspicious gennin. And that's how they found out about the invasion plan and could prepare for it. The streets that should still be filled with people were currently empty as the civilians were taken to shelters in the Hokage mountain. The only place not evacuated was the arena and that's where there was the most security while traps were prepared all around the village by Jiraiya and Hiruzen. In other word, the invasion force had all of their advantages cut off as giant toads were summoned by Jiraiya to counter the snakes and explosions and screams were heard from the attackers as trap seals were set off. In the arena however the civilians were all asleep, as were most gennin that didn't release the sleep genjutsu placed in the tribunes in time. Thankfully the ninja awake dispelled the jutsu on their comrades and also on the wizards who then proceeded to appariate away with the few children that came as they were warned to do. Now only a few aurors stayed to help the leaf shinobi to fight back as four Oto (sound) shinobi trapped the Hokage and Dumbledore with Orochimaru inside a barrier technique as the sound of battle came from everywhere in the village but Naruto had to concentrate on his opponent. Gaara charged at Naruto while sending sand Shurikens but Naruto made them explode with **_Reducio_** before he ran towards Gaara. The auburn haired shinobi jumped as with his right arm back and a mad look on his face, prepared to rip Naruto to shreds but just before they met the blond gennin dodged by sliding beneath him and planted his feet on his stomach, put his arms backwards on the floor and used Gaara's momentum to send him flying where he came from as he finished his roll to get up while facing Gaara. The sand jinchuriki before the sand on him fell and he grabbed his head in pain as the two other sand gennins and their jonin sensei appeared in front of him.

"It seems like your little invasion is a failure, so what are you going to do?" The sand jonin gritted his teeth.

"Temari, Kankuro, take Gaara and retreat" He ordered as the proctor came next to Naruto.

"No, I will have his life!" Gaara shouted as he glared at Naruto but he was still in too much pain to resist as his siblings took him but before they could move a blue light slammed into Temari and the was expulsed with a loud bang towards her teacher who caught her. The ninjas looked to see a young girl with bushy brown hair and a wand pointed towards Gaara, and she was trembling in fear. They hadn't heard her because of all the commotion but now Naruto's eyes widened in fear.

"What are you doing you idiot? Get away from here!" He shouted and Gaara grinned madly as he found a way to make Naruto fight him. For Naruto the world seemed to have went in slow motion as he saw Gaara charge at his brave and foolish friend, he ran to intercept him and was going to throw a spell when a gust of wind blew him back, he forgot the fan user. He saw Gaara dodge the jinxes of Hermione as he came in front of her and knocked her wand out of her hand before he carried her on his left shoulder and jumped out of the arena with his siblings. Naruto didn't think twice to follow them, noticing at the corner of his eyes the proctor and the sand jonin fighting each other.

'Amaterasu help the proctor, I'll go after them!'

'Be careful master' Amaterasu said as she reluctantly obeyed him.

He followed them in the forests surrounding Konoha, never letting them out of his sight until Kankuro stopped to face him but as Naruto was going to throw a kunai Shino appeared next to him.

"Go help your friend Naruto-san, I'll take care of him. Your match was not decided yet and I was originally his opponent."

"I'm counting on you then" Replied Naruto as he dashed towards Gaara and Temari. He quickly found them because they didn't knock out Hermione so the young witch made some noise. He threw several kunais just in front of Gaara and Temari as they landed on a thick branch.

"You won't get away!" Gaara grinned madly as Hermione called out for the blond shinobi.

"Perfect, I knew you will come. Now let's test each other: you who is loved against me who survived fighting only for myself, I wonder who will survive." He exclaimed eagerly.

"Gaara, we should obey our sensei and fle_" Temari was interrupted by Gaara sending her flying into a nearby tree.

"Don't interfere, you will only get in the way…" Gaara growled out as Temari shook in fear but Naruto was thinking fast.

_"__Why did he do that? I thought he wouldn't care about who he kil_ wait, is that a bit of worry I see in his eyes?"_ Naruto smirked, surprising the others.

"It seems like we are even more similar than I first thought…" He shook his head, "No matter, let my friend go or I'll have to beat you out of your misery."

"Well then let's see, Uzum**aki**" Gaara's voice changed again as well as his body except this time it looked like his arm transformed into sand and took shape of Shukaku's and the transformation took over half of his body, creating a single tail behind him as blue markings appeared over the sand parts and he drooled because of his distorted face. All in all most people will think he was a monster and Naruto knew it wasn't going to be easy. Before he could move however Gaara violently pinned Hermione into the tree with his stretched sand arm, knocking her out and staying here as the sand jinchuriki grew another sand arm.

"Hermione!" Gaara let out a deranged laugh.

"**You'd better be fast to save her, the sand is going to tighten more and more until she dies**" The demonic sounding voice stated. Naruto's eyes were covered by his hair. "**Well what are you waiting for? Too scared to attack?**" He taunted, only to freeze when he saw that Naruto's eyes became red with black slits as his features became more feral. No words came out of the blond jinchuriki as he appeared two seconds later behind Gaara, his sand arm severed from his body. He screamed as he clutched his right arm, the sand being the only reason he didn't lose it. Naruto gave him a cold glare.

"Don't take it personally, I only seek to protect my friend." Gaara shook in anger as the sand went back to his right arm and covered the entirety of his body.

"**I will not lose, my existence will not disappear!**"

_"__Damn, magic won't work since he will be wary of it and avoid everything and I don't have any jutsu that will work well and I'll prefer keeping my summoning as a last resort… Guess I'll go with pure power"_

'Ready, Kurama?'

**"****Just do it!"** He answered with a smirk. Naruto dodged some sand shurikens Gaara sent at him before thirty clones puffed in existence. The Sabaku siblings were shocked to see all the clones and Naruto cloaked in red chakra.

"I hope you are prepared you damn tanuki because I'm coming to knock some sense into you!" He exclaimed as he charged. The clones attacked one after another continually, barely letting Gaara any time to counterattack. The miniature Shukaku was beat up to the point its sand couldn't regenerate fast enough.

_"__How is it possible?"_ He asked himself as two Naruto punched him to the ground, the impact creating a decent sized crater. The sand on him slowly falling as the thirty clones and Naruto fell towards him. _"How can he be so strong?"_

"**My existence will not fade!**" He screamed at the top of his lungs as an enormous blast of wind and sand hit Naruto and dispelled his clones. The blond jinchuriki stood on a tree branch without his cloak as he observed his opponent, now in his full transformation as the giant form of Sabaku towered over the forest. He noticed Temari palling at the corner of his eyes, coming to the conclusion that Gaara will probably lose control very soon. Sand rose out of nowhere and started to recover Naruto who was too tired and damaged by the. He glanced at Hermione as her restraint tightened before he bit his thumb and slowly did several hand signs before the sand completely surrounded him.

"**_Sabaku kyu_** (sand coffin)**_!_**"

"**_Kuchiyose no jutsu_** (summoning jutsu)!" The sand that was trapping Naruto was destroyed in an enormous puff of smoke that soon dispersed to reveal the boss toad: Gamabunta.

"What did you call me for, brat" Gamabunta said before seeing Shukaku and sweat-dropped at the sight. "Never mind, I think I got it…"

"Please fight with me oyabun (boss)!" The toad took a long drag of his pipe before breathing out a cloud of smoke. "I suppose I have to protect my subordinates… But you'd better not call me to fight another Bijuu anytime soon, brat!" Naruto smiled at that, remembering for a brief moment what he considered one of the best things that happened in his life: befriending the toads of mount Myoboku. After gaining a small bit of respect from Gamabunta for staying on his head three hours he became his 'underling' but it was after he summoned his son Gamakichi that he was able to be called a friend of the toads. The small orange skinned toad and him hit it off very well and quickly became friends but one day he summoned the small toad by mistake in the forest of death and protected him, earning him the respect of Gamabunta and all the other toads. Now however he had to call the strongest toad he knew to fight a fully transformed Gaara and he just knew it was going to be a hell of a fight. The boss toad grasped his giant tanto before charging towards the giant tanuki as he drew his blade and slashed at one of his front arms in one fluid motion that was stopped by the hardness of the sand, forcing him to jump to finish cutting it and made the blade escape from his grasp, making the earth tremble as it embedded itself into the ground. Naruto looked at the destruction a single attack made and realized that if the fight went near where his friend is captured there was no way she was going to survive. Seeing Naruto calling out a boss summon shocked Temari as she knew that it required an amount of chakra that even jonins will have trouble to call, making her wonder just who was Gaara's opponent. But she knew what her brother will do and ran until she was at a safe distance to watch this fight that she felt will be important for her little brother.

"Hey boss, my friend is on that side so don't go over there, so please lure him that side!" Naruto pointed behind the transformed sand shinobi. The toad looked at him in confusion. "She is trapped and not a ninja, we have to defeat him or else we can't save her" The toad summoner answered the unasked question with a determined look in his eyes that made Gamabunta grin. They watched as Gaara's upper body came out of the centre of the tanuki's face and made a single hand sign.

"Thank you for keeping me entertained so far…" He said, "Now I'll show you the true powers of the sand demon"

"Oy, don't tell me he's going to wake up Shukaku…"

"So you know about that?" Gamabunta asked.

"Well I do have the nine tailed fox as a tenant…"

"Make sense"

"**_Tanuki Neiri no jutsu_** (Tanuki sleep jutsu)!" The sand jinchuriki exclaimed. There was a moment of tense silence before the eyes of the sand monster shined with life.

"Yahooo! I'm finally out!" Shukaku roared to the sky until it noticed Gamabunta and lifted an arm towards him, "And there's somebody I want to kill!" It yelled cheerfully, which disturbed Naruto. "**_Fuuton_** (Wind style)…" The giant toad frowned.

"We're gonna jump" He simply stated before doing so as the tanuki finished its jutsu by hitting his stomach.

"**_Renkuudan_** (Air bullet)!" The wind jutsu that the one tail used was devastating, it obliterated the forest in its way and Gamabunta would definitely not come out unscathed if it hit him. The scary part was that Shukaku was far from being at full power. Shukaku shot four balls of air at Naruto and the boss summon as they were still in the air

"**_Suiton: Teppodama_**" Three huge balls of water where shot from the toads mouth to counter the air balls. When they collided the attacks exploded, wind and water falling and raging around as if it was a storm.

"This is bad boss, there's still one left!" The last air bullet collided with Gamabunta, making him crash heavily to the ground. As Shukaku rejoiced because he killed someone the boss toad got up, surprising the Tanuki.

"That hurt! You pumped so much damn chakra into that ball you threw at me!" He complained before he looked at Naruto, "Even I can't take many hits from those so we need to wake that medium kid!"

"How?"

"It wasn't long so just punch him awake!"

"And just how do you plan to pin down Shukaku for me to do that?" Naruto asked exasperated.

"We will do a combined **_henge_** (transformation) since I'm not good with that so I'll give the chakra while you become my will and give the form, anything with claws and fangs will do!" He exclaimed as he charged Shukaku once again. "Here we go!" Naruto made a hand sign as he glared at Shukaku.

"**_Henge_**!" They shouted at the same time as an enormous cloud of smoke covered them. They came out just in front of Shukaku in the form of a nine tailed fox that pinned down the other tailed beast before it became a toad again as Naruto jumped and landed a punch on Gaara, waking him up. Naruto slid back several meters away from Gaara as sand nearly got to him.

_"__Shit, I don't have enough chakra for a long fight since I summoned Gamabunta, I have to end this fast"_ Naruto ran as fast as he could toward Gaara but his feet suddenly got stuck in the sand as the sand gennin sent sand to crush him but Gamabunta protected him by sending his tong around Naruto.

_"__Just what kind of power does he have?"_ Gaara wondered: he didn't understand where Naruto's strength was coming from. Normally most people would cower in fear at his half and full transformation into the Ichibi (one tail) but Naruto not only wasn't afraid but he also managed to put back the sand demon in his sleep when he released him. He couldn't understand how he always managed to fight back and somehow win despite all that he threw at him.

"You're going to be killed by me." He said as he started to sweat, "My existence will continue." Sand started to crawl on Naruto's legs as the boss toad stopped protecting Naruto since it didn't work and was being pushed back toward the part of the forest where Hermione was restrained. Naruto calmly looked at her as the sand around her tightened slightly again, she wouldn't survive much longer. He turned to glare coldly at Gaara.

'Kurama…'

**"****You don't need to ask, kick his ass!"** Naruto was suddenly covered in red chakra that destroyed the sand grasping his legs.

"Here I go you damn tanuki!" He exclaimed as he charged at great speed, his arm backwards to punch him but Gaara managed to restrain him with some sand but he could only stare in shock as the blond disappeared in smoke, meaning he was a clone. He turned around just in time to see a fist covered in red chakra before it collided with his face, the force of the blow enough to create a small crater in the sand tanuki. As all the sand Gaara controlled fell, including the sand around Hermione, Gamabunta went back to his realm, causing a blast of smoke that threw the two gennins on the top of opposite trees near the toad's tanto. The two jinchuriki stood up with difficulty, Gaara had nearly no chakra left and was wounded by Naruto's attacks. Naruto still had a bit of chakra to spare but the strain that cloaking himself in Kurama's chakra put on his body was exhausting him fast. They stared at each other for a while, each knowing it will end with the next blow. Then, in an unsaid agreement, the two jinchuriki jumped towards each other as the giant tanto dispelled like its owner. Naruto punched Gaara before he had the time to attack and they fell, passing through the trees and gaining numerous scratches because of it before they landed on the floor. Gaara was on his back and couldn't move so he could only stare in fear as he saw Naruto slowly getting up and limping towards him, his eyes shadowed by his hair.

"Do-Don't come any closer!" He yelled in fright.

"The pain of being alone… is not an easy one to bear…" Naruto started as he catches his breath, "Your feelings… I can understand your pain" Gaara's eyes widened in shock when he saw the pained look on Naruto's face. "But, I already have many people that are important to me now… and I won't let you hurt them, even if you try to hurt them… I will stop you." He exclaimed as his pupils became slits.

"Why? Why do you go that far for other people's sake?"

"They saved me from the hell of being alone. They acknowledged my existence, that's why they're all important to me"

"Love…" He muttered as he took in those words. "I don't think I have anyone like that" Before Naruto could answer Temari and Kankuro suddenly appeared, ready to fight. "That's enough… It's over" They looked at their little brother in shock: that was the first time he was that beaten up and the first time he didn't look like he wanted to murder anybody. They carefully carried Gaara and were going to go.

"Wait!" They turned warily towards Naruto, "For what you said earlier, you have two of them" Kankuro and Temari were confused but Gaara's eyes widened.

"But I_"

"Threatened to kill them yet they are still there. Face it: if deep down you didn't care about them you would have killed them a long time ago. Plus I saw a bit of worry in your eyes when you told your sister to not interfere" Temari looked at Gaara in shock as he seemed confused.

"After all the things I did to them_"

"They stayed with you despite everything, think about it." Naruto interrupted again. "What you want the most is literally written on your face but Shukaku is making this difficult. So I, with some help, have a new seal for you, one that'll let you sleep." Now they all stared in shock.

"What the hell?" Asked Temari.

"Why would you help your enemy?" Gaara softly asked.

"Well… We are incredibly similar but I didn't have your crappy seal and a great beast that will rage around every time I sleep. And no matter where you come from jinchuriki very rarely have a nice life so why won't I help a fellow container?"

"Wait, when you say you are like Gaara, you mean…" Kankuro asked, Naruto nodded with a small smile.

"Yup, I also contain a great beast: The nine tailed fox. I also became friends with him so that's how I knew about Shukaku." Gaara's siblings paled, they were ready to fight him just a moment ago and even if he was exhausted it could very well have been their last fight. Naruto took out a paper with a complex seal written on it. "Now if you would just let me put that on Gaa_"

"I won't allow you near my little brother, I don't trust you." Temari growled as she prepared a kunai, Gaara was surprised once again as he discovered that his sister, and probably also his brother, still cared for him despite everything he put them through.

"Temari, Kankuro…" They turned their head to him, "I'm sorry, but it is all right: if he wanted to harm me he would have already done so." His siblings were shocked once again before they allowed Naruto close.

"That might hurt a bit as it will overwrite your old seal." Gaara nodded and he placed the seal on the paper on him. The Ichibi jinchuriki gritted his teeth in pain as a bit of steam came out as the new seal replaced the old one, but it didn't last long and he soon breathed out in relief.

"I feel… lighter" He stated tiredly. Naruto smiled warmly.

"That's normal since Shukaku can't harass you mentally and you can now sleep without risks. I just want you to do one thing…"

"Everything" He exclaimed, nothing would be too much to thank Naruto to give him the ability to sleep.

"I want you to go to your mindscape from time to time and talk to Shukaku."

"What?" His siblings yelled.

"Why would he speak to that demon after all it has done?" Kankuro angrily exclaimed.

"This _demon_ has spent _centuries_ being _imprisoned_ and viewed as nothing else and used as a _tool for war_. So tell me, if that happened to you don't you think you will also be consumed by hatred? What I want Gaara to do is to destroy this chain of hatred by taking this into account. I'm not telling him to love or completely forgive Shukaku, just to understand why he acts like that." There was a tense moment before Gaara spoke again.

"I will try, Uzumaki" Naruto smiled before he went towards Hermione. She was still unconscious when he picked her up and made his way towards the village. As he jumped from tree to tree Hermione's eyes opened slowly.

"Naruto…"

"So the idiot is awake?" Naruto said with a fake cheerful attitude. "You don't plan to fight another ninja way out of your league, do you?" She looked down in shame.

"I know I didn't stand a chance but you were in danger and_"

"You did something reckless, stupid and nearly gave me a heart attack! Haven't you realised by now that this is no fancy wizard duelling but a real life or death situation? I live in this world since I am a kid so I'm used to it, hell it's in my job description to be potentially sent into dangerous situations!" She stayed silent a moment before a small smile appeared on her face.

"At least you know how we felt every time you put yourself in danger" Naruto frowned.

"I'm a trained soldier, not you. Now sleep, you need it" Hermione was too tired to think about arguing and did just that. Naruto came into the village to be stopped by Kakashi. "Kakashi-sensei, how bad is the situation?" The jonin paused as he heard his student's seriousness before answering.

"Since we were ready for the invasion they are far less casualties than what it could have been, be it civilians or ninja. We won but…"

"But what?" Kakashi sighed.

"The Hokage lost his life defending the village." And just like that, Naruto's world seemed to crumble.

It has been three days since the invasion, two since the funerals of his surrogate grandfather. Ron had to go with Dumbledore just after the funeral and Hermione was sent in the wizard's hospital still unconscious. Naruto didn't cry, he couldn't. He heard from Dumbledore what happened: Orochimaru trapped Hiruzen and Dumbledore in a barrier jutsu and fought against them. Not expecting their strength he used a kinjutsu (forbidden technique) to revive the first and second hokage and forced them to fight with him. They battled until Hiruzen decided to end this by using a sealing jutsu that costed the user's life. Two shadow clones sealed the previous Hokages souls as he personally attempt to seal Orochimaru. The snake sannin riposted by sending his sword into Hiruzen's chest, it didn't make it very far thanks to the combined effort of the boss monkey, Sarutobi's summon, and Dumbledore. Unfortunately for them the four Oto-nins that made the barriers saw that their boss was in danger and went to save him, forcing Hiruzen to only seal his arms, forbidding him the use of any jutsu. Orochimaru still managed to escape thanks to his subordinates. Naruto knew that his surrogate grandfather died with a smile on his face because he died protecting the village but he still found it hard. Kurama decided to leave him his time alone and Karin made sure he knew she was there for him if he needed to before she let Naruto deal with it the way he wanted to, same for Tenten and Anko. And so he trained, he trained until he dropped and thought about all the good times he had with the now dead Hokage and was getting better, after all the old man wouldn't want him to be depressed over his death for long. There is also another thing that changed: he was now a chunin, meaning he wasn't a full part of team seven anymore and could take missions independently from them. He was currently eating alone at Ichiraku's ramen shop when somebody entered.

"Ah, I thought I would find you there" Jiraiya said.

"Huh, ero-sennin (pervy sage), what are you doing there?" Naruto asked as he turned to look at him.

"Stop calling me that! And I came to ask you to come with me on a mission."

"What mission?" His expression became serious, making the toad sage smile at his attitude.

"We are to find and bring back Tsunade of the sannin to be appointed Hokage" Naruto was surprised by that.

"You mean…"

"Yup, we are going to pay a visit to your godmother." He stated with a grin: this was going to be an interesting meeting. He would never know how right he was.

**A/N: Finally finished! So yeah, it's been a while but I think this chapter is my longest yet. I had trouble writing the chunin exam arc because it's an arc that I really liked and didn't want to change much. Since I'm paranoid I think I'm going to explain some things that might bring questions:**

**_Reducio_****is not said to make things explode: I know but my reasoning is that if you shrink something too much it will be compressed until the break point where the energy is suddenly released, resulting in a violent explosion similar to ****_Engorgio_****.**

**Why did Sasuke lose so easily? Simple, he might have the sharingan and the ****_chidori_**** but he is not experienced enough to use them properly. If you think about it Sasuke have some good speed and the ****_chidori_**** enhance it but he is still far from Rock Lee's speed without weights so it doesn't make sense for Gaara to be hit by him. Plus he runs in a freaking straight line from some distance away, doesn't take a genius to put an obstacle on his path. And I always thought that in canon Gaara let himself be hit by the ****_chidori_**** because he was interested in killing and make Sasuke despair before. There it was Naruto that was his target.**

**The psychopath Gaara in fact worried about Temari? Well that was my theory: He's a psychopath that doesn't give a damn about who he kills so why are they, his siblings, alive? A part of him loves them or at least that's how I interpreted the fact he never killed them and apologized to them after saved (by having his ass kicked) by Naruto.**

**Hermione attacked Gaara? She's a Gryffindor for a reason, she knows very well she can't really do anything to Gaara but her friend was in danger so like any good Gryffindor she will do anything to help her friends, even doing the stupid choice to attack a ninja that can kill her without moving a finger. The line between bravery and stupidity can be so thin sometimes…**

**I think that is all I need to say so… Hope you enjoyed and see you next chapter ^^**


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter 13: The search for Tsunade

**A/N: Hey guys, a new chapter is up and again I am sorry for the wait. So now we are nearly done with the summer 'holydays' of Naruto and he will soon be able to relax at school… Well as much as one can relax at Hogwarts when weird stuff happen all the time. I don't have a lot of things to say right now so let's get to the story shall we?**

"Dialogue"

_"Thoughts"_

'Mental dialogue'

**"Bijuu (Great beast) dialogue"**

**_"_****_Bijuu thoughts"_**

"**_Spells and jutsus_**"

Naruto and Jiraiya arrived at a little town where they will spend the night at after a day of talking and walking. Naruto used this time to read through his new bingo book he received directly from Jiraiya and quickly saw how much he still had to grow as he saw the information on some S-ranked missing-nin. The ones that worried the more was the one on Uchiha Itachi, an old leaf ninja who murdered his entire clan except Sasuke-Teme (bastard), and who was a real prodigy. As in graduated at seven years old, mastered the sharingan at eight, became a chunin at ten, became ANBU at eleven and an ANBU captain at 13. Naruto knew he wasn't weak by any means and that few became chunin that young but thinking he could beat him was just plain stupid. In the same category were the others known S-ranked ninja, in the bingo book S-ranked meant the most dangerous and near Kage level. Jiraiya told him that there was in fact another rank: the SS-ranked that were at the minimum middle-Kage level by taking into account every Kage that ever existed, and could go on indefinitely. An SS rank wasn't seen in decades and all came with one description: Flee on sight or attack with an army of expert shinobi and pray it works. Needless to say this conversation was very humbling for Naruto was an understatement. It also appeared that the toad sage and his old teammates are all S-ranked ninja, making Naruto gained a bit more respect toward Jiraiya, though he was still an old pervert in his eyes. The little town they arrived at didn't have anything important but as they were taking a hotel room the two shinobi saw an attractive woman that seemed to show some interest in Jiraiya. Being the kind of man he was the perverted sage immediately jumped on the occasion and let Naruto go alone in the room so that he could train his chakra control calmly. Because of that Naruto found himself sitting on one of the two beds in the room while cursing Jiraiya with all of his soul when he heard someone knocking on the door. Thinking that it was his grandfather that already got rejected he opened the door, only to find himself staring at two sharingan eyes with three tomoe each attached to a black haired man with a serious expression and that wore a long high collared cloak with several red clouds on it with a headband on his forehead with Konoha's symbol slashed, the mark of missing-nin. Naruto immediately recognized Itachi Uchiha and mentally gulped.

"Is this kid really the nine tails?" Asked a second man that was taller and larger than Itachi. The man had pale blue/grey skin, blue hair styled as a shark's fin and a shark like appearance with sharp triangular teeth, small, round white eyes and gill-like facial markings under them. He wore the same cloak as Itachi, a brown sash across the front and back to hold a weapon wrapped in bandages and a headband with the symbol of the village in the mist also slashed. Naruto also recognized him from the bingo book: Kisame Hoshigaki, a former member of the seven swordsmen of the mist and called the strongest out of his generation, he was nicknamed the 'monster of the hidden mist' and had the Samehada, a blade that consists of downward scales, from what he read, and that could absorb chakra by contact and with other fearsome abilities. However Naruto wasn't really surprised that they knew about Kurama being sealed inside him because of Itachi's past.

"Naruto-kun. We would like you to come with us."

_"__I'm screwed…"_ The blond thought.

"Itachi-san, we don't need him running around. We should cut off a leg." Kisame said as he grabbed the hilt of his sword.

_"__I'm definitely and completely screwed…"_ Naruto thought with a sweat-drop.

"No need, I kind of like my body in one piece and only a fool would think that a genin can take on an S-ranked ninja, much less two. But can I take my stuff first?" He calmly asked which surprised the two deadly ninjas. Itachi nodded once and Naruto slowly made a cross sign with his fingers.

"**_Shadow clone jutsu_**" A single clone appeared. The two Naruto went in the room and closed the door, which didn't bother the two shinobi as Itachi's sharingan can sense their target's chakra through it. Naruto and his clone immediately started to prepare his escape. The clone used the basic locking door spell and used the softening charm on their side of the door while Naruto cast the smokescreen spell in the room as he jumped out of the window as his clone closed it with the same two spells he used on the door. Naruto cast the softening charm on where he fell to bounce back high enough as Amaterasu used her strength to carry him in the air. In those few seconds Itachi and Kisame went to open the door the moment the magic smoke hid Naruto's chakra. It took a second for Itachi to notice the door was locked and kick it open. It took half a second for the door to bounce back at him in full speed and for Kisame to destroy it with Samehada. They were attacked by flocks of birds devoid of chakra in the smoke that they disposed of in another second. It took less than a second to find Naruto's clone and another half second to dispel it. It took another second to go to the window and realise it was locked and again a half a second for Itachi's elbow to bounce back when he tried to smash it open. Itachi destroyed the wall with a weak **_grand fireball jutsu_** in less than a second and when they got out Naruto's chakra signature had disappeared.

"I have to admit… The kid got guts" Kisame stated with a smirk.

"And skill" Itachi added with a frown. "It seems that our information about him was wrong. And I never heard of the skills he used and that managed to block my sharingan."

"But you don't look too upset about a genin escaping us… Well I would lie if I said I don't like thrill of hunting such a peculiar prey." The shark-man had a mad grin on his face before they heard someone yelling Itachi's name and turned to see Sasuke with a **_chidori_** in his hand. They both could feel that the black haired boy was only a high level genin and Kisame had a sweat-drop as the boy charged Itachi. "What did the ballsy kid said before?" He asked before enjoying watching Itachi beat the crap out of his younger brother.

Naruto was high in the air and looking for Jiraiya, he managed to escape the two S-ranked ninja by activating a chakra suppressing seal he applied on himself and casting the disillusionment charm on himself and Amaterasu at the exact moment his clone was dispelled.

'That was bloody close!'

'Yes it was master' Amaterasu answered with a shaky voice from nearly losing her master to those two person.

**"****I'm honestly impressed that you could think straight and create a plan with them just next room, much less actually escaping them. But don't think it'll work again."**

'I know! The only reason I could pull that off is because they underestimated me and apparently didn't know about magic yet. But what the hell is with _two_ freaking _S-ranked_ shinobi after me?'

**"****You kept your calm through the ordeal but now you're panicking?"** Kurama sweat-dropped.

'Be calm when you have to and panic when you can afford to. But you have to admit that this is insane!'

'I agree with master, Kurama. This was insane. But I see the pervert' She informed before diving towards Jiraiya who was speeding toward their hotel room with an unconscious woman on his shoulder.

"Ero-sennin!" Naruto exclaimed as he appeared right next to Jiraiya who put a kunai next to his throat in reflex.

"Whoa kid, don't do that to a seasoned ninja or they might harm you in reflex."

"Noted, but we have to leave this place right now: I have Itachi Uchiha and Kisame Hoshigaki after me!"

"What? Ok, follow me and put your invisibility back on." He ordered as he carefully put down the woman on the side of the street and created several clones to go to several exit with Naruto following the original in the air. When they left the town they were stopped by a green spandex wearing ninja with bushier brows than Rock Lee and was basically an adult version of Lee, Naruto guessed it was Might Guy. And the jonin was carrying an unconscious Sasuke, making Naruto sweat-drop.

'Did this guy really…?'

'Seems like it…' Amaterasu and Kurama also had a sweat-drop.

**"****I'm still amazed by the stupidity of some humans…"**

"Jiraiya-sama, Itachi and Kisame are after Naruto and… Where is he?" He asked in worry.

"Have they left the town?" Guy nodded. "You can drop your invisibility kid, but keep the seal on for the moment." The jonin looked confused until Naruto appeared next to Jiraiya as Amaterasu put him down. Guy sighed in relief.

"I was afraid that they got him but it seems they cannot defeat you."

"Hold it right here. I may be one of the legendary sannin but you are looking at Uzumaki Naruto, the fresh chunin that managed to escape alone two S-ranked ninja!" Jiraiya exclaimed with a proud smirk that made Naruto smile warmly at him while the spandex wearing jonin had wide eyes.

"What happened to Sasuke-Teme?" The blond brought Guy from his shock before he gained a serious expression.

"He fought Itachi Uchiha and now suffers from heavy mental trauma from one of his techniques, Kakashi also suffers from the same condition."

"Even Kakashi-sensei?" Naruto exclaimed.

"Those type of damage… Only Tsunade can heal those."

"Then let's hurry to bring her back!" Naruto exclaimed, making Guy give him one of his famous 'nice guy pose' with one arm extended, thumb up and shining smile.

"You've got guts kid! You know what, I'll give you something that made Lee as strong as he is" That caught Naruto's attention and was getting excited as he saw the insane speed he had for a gennin and without chakra. Guy rummaged in his bag for a moment, making Naruto's excitement grow, before he took out a green spandex similar to his and Lee's. "This is the secret of his strength, wear this and your training will be twice as effective!" He exclaimed while Jiraiya and Naruto had massive sweat-drops.

"Sure, the heavy training weights had nothing to do with it… I think I'm good but thanks for trying" He said sarcastically. That made Guy shrug.

"Your choice, but don't forget to let your flame of youth burn brightly!" He shouted as he ran away toward Konoha.

"I kind of feel sorry for the bastard on his shoulder..."

"Me too… But let's find Tsunade as fast as we can."

After several days of walking and talking about seals, Jiraiya's old teammates and Naruto's pranks when he was a kid, they arrive at a town with a festival going on. Naruto looked around in excitement as he never went at a festival.

"Hey Naruto, I'm going to gather some information on Tsunade so how about you enjoy the festival while I'm doing it?"

"Hey, I'm also part of the search mission so don't do all the work." Jiraiya smiled.

"It's nice to see you're being professional but you won't get a lot of chance to go to a festival. Let the boring stuff to me this time and go enjoy your youth."

"If you say so then thanks a lot ero-sennin, but I'm going to help you find information tomorrow." He stated before taking out and hugging a frog wallet full of money to his face with a big smile, catching Jiraiya's interest.

"Oh, that's a lot of money you have here."

"Yup, I saved my money and now Gama-chan (Toad-chan) is full and happy."

"Naruto, I have to warn you about the three sins of shinobi. They are_"

"Alcohol, and since I don't really drink and can't get drunk there's no problem. Women, I'm not a pervert like you so I'm safe from it. And money, I saved this money for a long time now and I don't waste it and I learnt the value of it because of the village." The sannin had a dumbfound expression before he shook his head.

"Good that you know them, I'll keep your money as safe keeping and_"

"No way, you are just going to use it to buy women attention and alcohol in those places for perverts, effectively indulging in the three sins." He calmly stated, making the older man to stare blankly.

"That's… kinda harsh"

"But can you say it's wrong?" The toad sage sighed in defeat.

"Fine, enjoy your fun while I work" Naruto had a victorious grin as he ran away. "I keep forgetting that the brat is better than he lets on." He muttered to himself before he went to try and find Tsunade.

Naruto spent the day eating junk food and playing games that he aced because of his ninja training and basically had the time of his life. Near the end of the day he bought two fried squid, one he planned to give to Jiraiya. Finding his godfather wasn't difficult as he just had to check certain places until he heard him let out a perverted laugh. As he went in the building he saw the sannin surrounded by two young women and with sake in front of him.

"See, I was sure you were going to spend your money in this kind of place, ero-sennin."

"Oh, Naruto! Did you enjoy your time?" The blond nodded before he handed him a fried squid, making Jiraiya smile as he took it.

"Thanks kid." Naruto let out a small smile and next thing he knew he was surrounded by the two women that were with Jiraiya.

"Oh, he is so cute!" The one on his right exclaimed.

"Are your whiskers birthmarks?" The woman on his left asked as she strokes his birthmarks, embarrassing him, much to the sannin's amusement. As he took a step back he slipped on a fallen glass and quickly catch himself but the fried squid he had flew out on his hand to put a stay on a white coat of a man with an arrogant look.

"Look what you did!" A bald man next to him shouted. "What are you going to do about it you stupid brat?" He angrily exclaimed.

"What's the problem? It was an accident and it can be cleaned."

"This is a designer suit, an expensive type of clothing! You better compensate us for it! Give me 100 000 for it!" Naruto just raised an eyebrow.

"You are asking me money to buy you another stupidly expensive suit for a stain that can easily be washed? How about: Not in your dream asshole?" The man shouted again while Jiraiya chuckled while saying that his precious suit was just a cheap one instead of a designer. Angering the two men with the bald one bragging that his friend was an ex-chunin of Iwagakure (village hidden in the rocks), the man in question charged at them, promising them pain and Naruto was prepared to take down the man when Jiraiya stepped up.

"Naruto… Pay close attention… As I'll show you the jutsu you'll be learning next." He stated and Naruto stared in awe as he saw a great amount of chakra spinning wildly and condensed in a small ball in his godfather's right hand before he shoved it into his opponent's guts, grinding into the man and sending him flying and spinning wildly as he collided with the bald man. Both men fell unconscious by the power of the technique as they crashed into a small cart selling water balloons. The sannin went other the scarred vendor and bought all the water balloons as well as paid for the cart before calling over to Naruto for training, which the boy was eager to start after this show. They stood on a cliff offering a good view of the city before Jiraiya wordlessly tossed a water balloon at Naruto from a bag full of it.

"So, what did you see in the jutsu?" The white haired ninja asked.

"You condensed a large amount of chakra in the palm of your hand and made it spin in several direction at the same time, which is really impressive." Naruto answered with a grin.

_"__Damn, spot on… It's Minato's son all right"_ He thought with a sweat-drop.

"You are totally right. This technique is a high A-rank jutsu that puts even the **_chidori_** to shame and can be used to knock out the opponent, as I did before, or kill them easily… Any idea how?" Naruto thought for a second before he gulped audibly.

"It will… grind into the target?" Jiraiya nodded grimly.

"It is not a technique to use lightly against your comrades. And the technique attacks mostly the inside rather than the outside, meaning that even if you don't drill through your enemies they most likely suffered enough internal damage to kill them. A master of the technique like me can control its power to become harmless but only one person could control it to the point that only the outside or the inside was attacked: Its creator, Minato Namikaze."

"The fourth Hokage's original jutsu?" Naruto asked, awed once more.

"Yup, now the training has three stages, the first one is to burst the water balloon with your chakra." He explained as he burst a water balloon he was holding.

"Got it!" Naruto exclaimed as he formed a hundred shadow clones. Fifty took a water balloon as the other fifty observed them.

_"__Oh, nice thinking. Like that you'll have the experience of trying the thing and of being an observer to compare with what I did… Seems like I won't have time to go look for information right now"_ Jiraiya thought with a grin. Two hours later Naruto completed the first stage. He had in fact completed it in one hour by using one of his hands to make the chakra spin but insisted that it wasn't over until he did it in one hand like Jiraiya.

"Good job Naruto, now the second stage consists in popping a rubber balloon with this."

"Power, right?" His teacher nodded with a proud smile at Naruto's progress, making the blond happy. This time all the clones took a balloon to train while Jiraiya went to search for Tsunade with the original Naruto. They found out that she was heading for a nearby city known for gambling and its beautiful castle: Tanzaku. They found the information late at night as Naruto's clones finished the second step of the Rasengan and they went to sleep. The next morning Jiraiya and Naruto were walking towards their destination as the sannin showed the young chunin the third step of the **_rasengan_**.

"Look closely Naruto, this is the third and last step of the **_rasengan_**." He stated as he held a plain rubber balloon in his hands. Naruto tilted his head in confusion before he widened his eyes and he began to sweat nervously.

"Oy ero-sennin, don't tell me…" The seasoned ninja had a pleased smile.

"Yup, the **_rasengan_**…" He started as he raised his other hand to show the spiralling orb. "Is in this rubber balloon. You will have to control it so that it doesn't burst the balloon, quite intense huh?"

"I knew you condensed it, but to not damage the balloon? That's insane!"

"This technique is the highest level of shape manipulation so of course it is insane! But the insane one is you Naruto: even with a large number of shadow clones your learning rate is outstanding." Naruto beamed at the praise. "But no **_shadow clone_** when we are traveling." Naruto's smile dropped before he sighed and extended his hand to receive a balloon. They didn't talk as they ran towards Tanzaku as Naruto needed the concentration.

They arrived at dusk as Naruto was still struggling with the technique. They entered the first casino they saw in hopes that Tsunade was seen there and it seemed they were in luck as a gambler saw her.

"Okay, boys? Odd number is 'han', even number is 'cho'" He said before placing two dice in a bamboo cup, shuffling the dice a bit before slamming down the cup on the floor mouth down. "If you win then the I'll tell what you want for free but if I win you pay a thousand, deal?" Jiraiya grinned and was going to say 'cho' but Naruto beat him to it.

"It's han." He stated in disinterest as he tried to figure a way to complete the third step. The gambler grinned and Jiraiya panicked as he revealed the dices to show two and five: an odd 'han' number.

_"__Thanks Kami _(god)_ the kid was lucky"_ The older ninja thought as he grinned victoriously when seeing the defeated look on the gambler's face as he sent them at another casino full of slot machines. As Jiraiya was asking around for his old teammate's whereabouts, Naruto tried a slot machine with a lone coin he saw on the floor. When they got out they had the general direction of the castle and Naruto with twice as much money than when he went in.

_"__This kid is frighteningly good at that. To gain this much with one coin though… He is Tsunade's antithesis"_ The toad sage thought with a sweat-drop as Naruto was hugging his nearly bursting Gama-chan to his cheek. They went on top of a wall near the castle, only to see the building destroyed. Jiraiya asked a man running in fear what happened and he told them a giant snake appeared from nowhere and destroyed the castle. This caused them to rush to the scene but nobody was here. Seeing that they arrived too late and the night having fallen they decided to stop their search and to go eat at a nearby pub. When they got in the sannin caught sight of someone he didn't expect to encounter by pure coincidence.

"Ah, Tsunade!" Said blond woman raised herself from her seat in surprise.

"Jiraiya? Why… are you in a place like this?" Jiraiya and Naruto sat down with her and her assistant, Shizune. "Today… I met with someone that brings back bad memories." The drunk sannin said.

"Orochimaru? Did something happen?" He asked but Tsunade denied in one of the most pitiful attempt at lying Naruto ever saw but he kept quiet and ate as he waited for the teammates to finish.

"You too… Why did you come to see me?"

"To tell you the truth…"

"The village of the leaf has issued a request for you to be the fifth hokage" Naruto interrupted. The news shocked Tsunade and Shizune.

"The third is…"

"It was Orochimaru's work. I heard, he told me." Tsunade calmly stated while Shizune looked disturbed by the last Hokage's death. Naruto was angered and clenched his fists so tightly his knuckles turned white, something Tsunade saw. "Who is this kid?"

"He is Uzumaki Naruto" Jiraiya stated with a small smile.

_"__So he is my godson and the nine tail's…"_

"So, do you accept or not?" The white haired man asked. She thought about it for a moment before giving her answer.

"Impossible… I decline." Naruto didn't look surprised contrary of Jiraiya and Shizune.

"Why did you want her as Hokage already?" Naruto asked.

"Because she's the one that brought us victory in the great battle… No one has been able to acquire her techniques… She's also the granddaughter of the first Hokage so she is the most appropriate person for the position." He stayed silent as Tsunade gained a small smile.

"Jiraiya, this kid seems worse than your previous apprentice… In terms of looks, speech and intelligence…" Naruto gained tick marks at her insult but managed to remain calm. "Because he really had the talent to become a top-rated ninja, he was smart and reliable… But even that fourth died quickly. He gave up his life to save the village. Life is different from money… It can't be gambled that easily. Whoever puts it at risk so easily… is a fool." She said before insulting the first two Hokage's that died to protect the village, each time Naruto's anger grew but he endured it. "It's the same for Sarutobi-san. No wonder he died… because he was too old to live in his dreams. Being Hokage is a shit, only a fool would do it." Naruto nearly jumped out of his seat with his fist drawn back but Jiraiya restrained him by putting a hand on his shoulder.

"Calm down, I remind you that we are at a pub."

"I don't give a shit! I won't let this useless drunk insult the Hokage or the fourth. Even if she is _was_ one of the sannin I'll beat up this bloody waste of space!" Tsunade had a small smile as she put herself face to face with Naruto.

"You've got guts to say such things to me boy. Let's take it outside."

"That's my line. I'm ashamed to have a useless drunk as a godmother." Naruto stated as he went out, shocking slightly Tsunade.

_"__How does he know?"_ She wondered and went to follow Naruto but was stopped by Jiraiya holding her shoulder.

"A warning: don't underestimate him." She scoffed at that.

"As if a genin will be able to beat me." He sighed and let her go, confusing the two women with his reaction. Tsunade found herself facing Naruto a small distance away, the boy somehow had a beautiful red bird on his shoulder. "Before we start, can I ask why you become this excitable when I talk about the Hokages?"

"Because contrary to you I really want to succeed the name of Hokage… Because it is my dream!" Naruto exclaimed proudly, shocking Tsunade as he reminded her of her dead little brother and lover. He took advantage of this by throwing a smoke bomb at his feet to conceal his use of his wand to cast the smokescreen spell that covered most of the street they were standing in. In the smoke he created wordlessly ten clones that were cloaked in the disillusionment charm before they surrounded Tsunade. The original Naruto took off in the air with Amaterasu's help and observed the blond sannin blowing the wind away with the air pressure of one punch, making Naruto and Amaterasu sweat-drop.

_"__Ok, she's a real heavy hitter that can totally destroy me but: She's drunk, don't know about magic and is severely underestimating me so I have the advantage… That's quite sad that my resent successes are based on magic being unknown and being underestimated, actually."_ Tsunade was blasted backwards by a **_flipendo_**, shocking her and Shizune while Jiraiya had an 'I warned you' look. After this stunt she stayed silent and concentrated, sensing the clone because he made some sound and dispelling it with a plain flick.

'She has some good hearing' Stated Amaterasu.

**"****And dispelled one of your clones with ****_one_**** flick, meaning it was equal to one clean hit… You're screwed."**

'I know, but it doesn't mean I can't get a few hits myself!' As he said that one of his clones used his **_Blue cloak_** but got immediately spotted and barely dodged Tsunade before dropping the cloak and using his **_half-beast form_**, and she hit empty air far from the clone. Having confirmation that the disillusionment charm couldn't totally hide his chakra from the best medic-nin in the world, albeit drunk, he couldn't use his full abilities while hidden. It was interesting to see that his **_half-beast form_** wasn't spotted but figured that since the chakra was flowing inside his body the charm could block her chakra sensing as she wasn't the _best_ sensor but a very good one. Naruto decided to create five other clones, each in **_half-beast form_** and **_Blue cloak_**. Three charged to distract her as the other two went through hand-signs.

"**_Raiton: Jibashi_** (lightning release: electromagnetic murder)!" The two clones exclaimed just in front of their opponent as they put their palms forwards, the two jutsus amplifying each other but she dodged and dispelled the five clones easily. She wasn't using one finger anymore and started to take him a bit more seriously. While that happened Naruto sent invisible kunais at random locations and in front of each of the nine clones that were left before creating two more with the same jutsus on. Tsunade charged at one but the second confused her as he just prepared to throw a punch in the air. She was then extremely surprised to suddenly be in the path of the punch at the exact moment when she couldn't dodge it anymore and took it straight in her face, sending her backwards. She caught herself and jumped away just before chakra wires appeared to trap her. She was then again surrounded by smoke and as she was going to punch it away she was attacked by… birds?

_"__Ok, what the hell is going on? That he creates _**shadow clones**_is understandable. The lightning technique is understandable. But how could he turn invisible like that? It wasn't the invisible jutsu of Jiraiya and didn't use chakra. And this smoke came out of nowhere, and it wasn't a jutsu that knocked me back in the beginning. And now I'm fighting _birds_ of all things… Just what the hell is going on?"_ Tsunade wondered as she finished the last bird to see nine clones surrounding her with sticks pointed at her. The one right in front of her casted **_lumos solem_**, the bright and warm light blinding her while the other clones threw jinxes at her: four threw the knockback jinx at the same time so that she was pinned in place, feeling the pressure of the jinxes trying to push her in opposing directions. Two used **_verdimillious_** and hit her with green sparks that did nothing but count as another hit in for Naruto, one other casted **_vermillious_** with the red sparks serving the same purpose as the green ones and the last one casted the curse of the bogies. Tsunade, now with a runny nose, had enough and showed it by striking the ground with her foot, creating a small quake that made the clones lose her footing and raised small stones that the flicked, destroying all clones on impact.

"Show yourself brat, no more playing around" She growled in irritation before sniffing because of her nose. For answer she felt his chakra directly above her and looked before having to block a red spiralling blur that she shoved away after a second, surprising her by the strength of the attacking bird and then she saw Naruto with a blue orb in his hand that she recognized. Her eyes widened as she jumped out of the way. Naruto struck the ground and created a large spiral mark one two inch deep in it. The sannin then proceeded to kick him hard, sending him into a wall and stunning him long enough for her to put a kunai next to his throat. She looked at Jiraiya as she let Naruto get up. "Was it you who taught the kid the rasengan? How stupid, only the fourth and you were able to use it. It's because of things like that that kids get the stupid dream to be Hokage."

"At least he's trying to make it up for abandoning me most of my life." Naruto coldly stated. "And at least he had the excuse of having a spy network to manage. What's yours? Too busy getting drunk and running away from the past to even check on your _godson_? Hell, even the pervert sent me a present anonymously once in a while." Tsunade looked at the ground for a second before she grinned.

"Let's make a bet, kid."

"What's it about?"

"If you manage to complete the **_rasengan_** in one week then I'll come back to be Hokage, make it up to you as your godmother and… give you this" She said as she showed a simple necklace with a green crystal gem, shocking deeply Shizune and even a bit Jiraiya. "But if you lose… I'll take all the money that is inside this" She said as she showed Gama-chan in her hand before it disappeared in a puff of smoke and Naruto grinned.

"The bet is on!" He unsealed his wallet from a seal on his left leg for a second before resealing it and going to find a place to train. While Shizune panicked about the bet, Jiraiya calmly went next to his old teammate.

"Sorry to tell you but this kid is your complete opposite in gambling: you lost the bet before it began." She rolled her eyes.

"This bet requires skill, not luck. A genin won't be able to complete _this_ jutsu in only one week."

"Chunin, actually. Oh and did I mention he cleared the first two steps in only one day?" He smirked at the women shock. "You should've forbidden the use of **_shadow clones_**" he laughed before inviting her to drink like in the old days, a proposition that she accepted. After wondering around with her pet pig Tonton, Shizune went to check on the blond boy as she worried about the bet. When she found him in an open field surprised to see him train with a hundred clones. A boy younger than her managed to make more **_shadow clones_** than she ever could when she was a jonin. It was frustrating to see that the clones were perfectly made and that he still got more than enough chakra to practice the **_rasengan_** for at least three days straight, if he didn't need to sleep, and that was without counting on the chakra supply of his tenant. But what surprised her most was the progress he made with the technique: each times he dispelled a batch of clones to replace it he was able to keep the balloon from exploding longer each try. After a few hours he stopped his training and turned to face her.

"What do you want?" He asked, snapping her out of her thoughts.

"I wanted to tell you to drop the bet." Before he could protest she added. "The reason why is that her necklace is cursed." Seeing his confusion she explained the story of the necklace. It was given to Tsunade by her grandfather, the first Hokage, when she was little. Later, hearing her little brother saying he wanted to be Hokage, she gave him the necklace in hopes it will bring him luck for his dream to come true. He died shortly after. Later she gave the necklace to her lover for the same reasons but he died shortly after too. Those deaths made Tsunade afraid of blood and to lose faith in the position of Hokage.

When Shizune finished her story she saw that Naruto was shaking silently. She had expected something like this to happen, either from fear of the curse or sadness at her teacher's past. But those thoughts got squashed when he couldn't contain himself and laughed loudly.

"T-This is too much!" He exclaimed between fits of laugher. Shizune never felt such anger towards anybody and raised her hand to strike the blond boy that dared to laugh at her master's past. He caught her hand before it connected as he regained control, though he still let out a small chuckle.

"Sorry, sorry. I wasn't laughing at her past sufferings or anything like that, but seriously, a cursed necklace? Where the hell did you get such an idea?"

"But it's true!" She shouted.

"You want me to give up for only this? You don't know me, neither does Tsunade when she should've but that's beside the point. The thing is that I don't give up, ever. No matter how much I'm hated by the villagers and no matter how much they beat me up, I never and will never give up. She suffered? So have I, but she gave up, not me. I will win and bring her back, I will survive this _curse_ and show her that what her brother, her lover and all the Hokage's before believed in is not meaningless!" He exclaimed with determination, stunning Shizune. "Now if you don't mind I have a technique to master in one week." He grinned. Shizune nodded and silently went away, a part of her hoping he will win the bet.

A week passed by quickly for Naruto as he trained day and night as he used clones to train when he slept. He managed to finish the **_rasengan_** by using to hands in two days, using only one hand the third day. He then decided to master the technique with Kurama's chakra which took him two more days as he already knew how to make one but had to adapt it to the fox's chakra. The last two days he spent on developing his other techniques so that he won't need to use hand signs and say their name as a focus. For the moment he could use most spells without having to say their names but it was much harder for jutsus. As it were the only techniques he could use without hand signs and words were the **_shadow clone_**, **_Hari jizo_**, **_Kawarimi_** (Replacement technique) and **_Henge_** (transformation) jutsus. The next morning, the day he had to show the **_rasengan_** to Tsunade, he was waking up from being passed out from fatigue, his clones having put him in his bed. He was instantly alert when he saw an unconscious Shizune on the floor and quickly scanned the area before waking her up. She panicked and asked what day it was before trying to dash out of the window. She was stopped by a kunai passing just in front of her and striking the wall, courtesy of Jiraiya. It was then that he told them that Tsunade put a chakra disrupting poison in his drink and that Shizune revealed the deal that Orochimaru proposed to her master: Heal his arms in exchange of the resurrection of her little brother and her lover. They rushed to the meeting point at the castle but found that the ground was newly destroyed.

_"__Good choice baa-chan _(grandmother/ old lady)_"_ Naruto thought with a grin. They went after Tsunade and arrived just in time to stop Kabuto's charge toward Tsunade.

"Ah!" Naruto exclaimed. "I recognize the glasses guy from the exams… Failed seven times right?"

"I'm glad you could remember me Naruto-kun" Kabuto said as he put his glasses back in place.

"As I thought you were a traitor. I mean, nobody will just suck this much on the chunin exam." The man shook his head.

"You wouldn't believe… I saw a man that failed this exam nine times before dying in his tenth try."

"Seriously?" The young chunin asked with a sweat-drop, to which the man only nodded humourlessly.

"Damn. Well anyway, will you and pedo-snake over there leave peacefully?"

"It's Orochimaru-sama" Kabuto corrected in slight irritation before calming down. "And I'm afraid we cannot go away without Tsunade-sama healing his arms."

"I see… Oh, and I call the snake bastard however I want, especially since he gave his curse seal to Sasuke like a hickey… So, yeah: pedo-snake." Kabuto was clearly annoyed by the disrespect to his master. Tsunade suddenly charged, pushing the weakened Jiraiya out of her way. Seeing this Kabuto slashed his own hand, spraying blood on Tsunade who then stopped and shivered in fear. He was going to punch Tsunade but suddenly got sent backwards by a blue light and a loud bang. He skid several meters away before glaring at Naruto who had his wand raised toward him.

"I nearly forgot that you had this magic. But it's a shame that I've seen it at the chunin exam: you won't take me by surprise like this." He stated as he punched an invisible clone next to him.

"Yup, you're going to be a pain to deal with." As they talked Shizune looked after Tsunade while Jiraiya prepared himself to fight in his weakened state.

"You know Naruto-kun, you are an interesting genin. Why don't you join Orochimaru-sama? He will make you stronger than you will ever be by staying at Konoha."

"Are you a moron? My dream is to be Hokage so don't think I'll give up on that anytime soon. Plus why would I want to join pedo-snake? I don't want this cursed seal." Kabuto gained a tick mark.

"A shame, but I'm sure you would make a wonderful research material." Orochimaru said with a chuckle.

"Shizune, you handle the guy with glasses. I'll take care of Orochimaru. Tsunade, you heal yourself and Naruto, your job is to protect Tsunade and the pig." Jiraiya ordered, gaining a nod from Shizune and Naruto. Orochimaru took out the bandage on his left arm, revealing a summoning seal tattooed on the dead limb. Kabuto sprayed some of Orochimaru's blood on it as he did hand signs, Jiraiya doing the same as they slammed their hands on the ground at the same time and shouted.

"**_Summoning jutsu_**!" Two puff of smoke appeared: Kabuto having called to gigantic snakes and Jiraiya... Gamakichi. The young toad cheerfully greeted them as his summoner's comrade saw how badly Tsunade's poison affected him.

"I'll do it!" Naruto exclaimed as he went through the same hand signs and slammed his hands on the ground. "**_Summoning jutsu_**!" This time a huge puff of smoke appeared, and in it was the boss toad summon: Gamabunta.

"Who summoned me?" The giant toad asked as he looked up to see Jiraiya, Naruto and Gamakichi.

"That was me." Naruto informed. "I would like that you help ero-sennin deal with our snake problem" He pointed toward the giant snakes, making Gamabunta groan.

"Why can't you all just call me for a drink instead of battle." He said as he took out his tanto.

"Next time old friend" Jiraiya said as he laughed. Naruto and Gamakichi were next to Tsunade when the toad and the sannin charged their opponents.

"What's wrong with her?" The small orange toad asked his blond friend.

"Hemophobia." He simply said.

"Must suck to be her."

"Yeah, and she's also a doctor."

"Seriously, isn't that impossible with hemophobia?"

"Apparently she became the best before being afraid of blood. Of course now her profession is a bit more difficult to do so to actually fight…"

"Man, that sucks." The small orange toad said, both he and Naruto not even paying attention to the impressive fight between two legendary ninjas. Meanwhile Shizune was fighting Kabuto, and losing. The sound shinobi managed to cut Shizune's Achilles tendons with his **_chakra scalpel jutsu_** and was rushing toward Tsunade but stopped to dodge a barrage of shurikens.

"Why do you even bother, Naruto-kun?" He asked as he pushed his glasses back in place. "You are only a genin and I'm as strong, if not stronger, than Kakashi. Not only that but I know all of your magic and won't let you take me by surprise." Naruto grinned.

"Really, you really think I showed all I could do with magic? Plus I'm not a good base to know what magic can do since I'm just beginning." He turned to his frog friend. "Stay with Tsunade." Then looked at Tsunade. "Just watch baa-chan, I'm going to take this necklace of yours!"

"You have a lot of trust in your ability to beat me." Calmly stated Kabuto before casually dodging a kunai that appeared out of nowhere before jumping away when the same kunai was blasted back at him by a blue light. "You would have to do better than that."

"I did." Naruto simply stated while pointing to the ground. Kabuto's eyes widened when he sensed a faint but particular type of chakra activity and jumped away again just in time as an explosion made a crater where he stood a moment ago.

_"__So he can also turn invisible objects… The kunai appearing was a distraction to catch me in this trap but invisibility doesn't completely suppress chakra. I may know his tricks but I still have to know their limits. Magic is still mostly an unknown… It seems it will be harder than I first thought."_ Observed the glasses wearing shinobi before he ran back toward Naruto, **_chakra scalpel_** ready but again he had to dodge several blue lights. Naruto knew that his clones will be found out sooner or later, even if he made them move around with the **_chakra suppressing seal_** before attacking. Some of his clones however where safe for a while as they were in the sky thanks to some clones transformed into Amaterasu and holding them up. Those clones were his fail safe if he needed emergency support or escape and all had the same seal on. As he expected Kabuto soon destroyed three clones, leaving Naruto with twelve clones on the ground and five in the air.

_Ok, think! This guy is jonin level, highly intelligent and Orochimaru's right hand man so he must have something to make him special in this bastard's eyes. Not only that but he knows about the spells and jutsus I used in the exam, which is thankfully not much but the disillusionment charm was my best trick and since he doesn't seem to find my clones on sound alone he must be good at sensing chakra. On the plus side I have some surprises left and of course… I'm underestimated again! Hooray for arrogant opponents!"_ Naruto thought as he distracted Kabuto with several **_avifors_** spell on dropped kunai to swarm him in birds. It took Kabuto five seconds to destroy the birds and when he did he had to dodge a punch from Naruto, who had a red chakra cloak surrounding him. The punch created a small crater in the ground. No words were exchanged as a single tail of red chakra grew out of Naruto and twelves now revealed clones around him. They all charged at the same time, Kabuto did his best to defend himself but fighting twelve fighters with the strength of one tail of chakra from the strongest Bijuu was still difficult. He had no room for mistakes as the clones fought with everything they had and hiding in the ground like he did with his previous opponent will not help this time. They clashed against each other for several minutes while their masters fought near them, Naruto's now greater speed and strength able to match Kabuto's own speed and experience. By the end of the exchange Naruto lost all his clones and started to feel the effect of his **_red cloak_** while Kabuto took some good damage, both were slightly panting.

"I have to admit: you fought better than I fought you would, Naruto-kun." Kabuto said as he wiped some blood on the corner of his mouth. Naruto finally let go of his chakra cloak because of the strain it put on his body.

"Less talking, more fighting!" Naruto exclaimed as he charged with his wand out Kabuto jumped away but found himself punched anyway, sending him several meters away as he wasn't prepared to take the blow. Before he could get back up he found himself near Naruto as a jet of orange and red flames went towards him. His reflexes allowed him to get away but he still got hit on the shoulder. Without any hesitation he cut the clothes and skin that was burning before it became too serious and regenerated himself. He also noticed that there was now a kunai where he was before appearing in front of the fire blast. Naruto saw he understood that he was switched places and now knew of his **_incendio_**.

_"__Well good thing I learned the switching spell when Hermione told me about it"_ Naruto had to use a substitution with one of his flying clone to avoid getting hit, revealing their position to Kabuto's chakra sensing abilities as he now knew where to search and destroyed them quickly.

**"****Indeed, but now you don't have a lot of tricks of your sleeves… You do know it is too dangerous to try to only knock him out, right?"** Kurama said grimly.

'I know, and I have an idea as to how to do that.' The blond ninja answered seriously. Kabuto charged at him with his **_chakra scalpel_** on both hands, aiming to destroy Naruto's wand. Naruto tried to get his wand out of the way but his opponent grabbed the wand, and Naruto grinned.

"Checkmate." Kabuto eyes widened as his strength started to leave him when he heard that. He tried to take his hand of the wand but found out that he couldn't and the chakra coating this hand disappeared nearly immediately without giving the wood even a scratch. Tsunade just stood in shock as even in her state she saw the life force of the sound ninja getting sucked by her godson's strange stick. Her shock only grew as Naruto prepared a **_rasengan_** in his left hand, but it wasn't a normal one: it was made of red chakra, the Kyubi's chakra, giving it a crimson colour. "**_Crimson rasengan_**!" Naruto exclaimed as he struck Kabuto in his chest with his **_rasengan_** variant. The sound shinobi screamed in pain as the ball of chakra grinding into him and destroying his insides before being blasted back into a faraway rock, creating a crater in it. There was a silence for a moment before he fell dead as Kurama's chakra ruined his cells faster than he could regenerate them, plus the serious damage it caused. Sadly, Kabuto had the time to use his last **_chakra scalpel_** to cut near Naruto's heart and the blond chunin joined his enemy on the ground. The last thing he saw before falling into darkness was Tsunade rushing towards him, a smile graced his face as he managed to say one last thing before falling unconscious.

"I win the bet, baa-chan…"

**A/N: Chapter finished! Don't kill me for the cliffhanger, we all know that Naruto won't die, he is too stubborn for this. Now I tried to make it balanced between magic and chakra but before you kill me because Naruto win or escape easily when he's against way stronger enemies is simple and I'll make it clear if it wasn't already: Outside of the major ninja villages no one knows about magic so Akatsuki didn't know it exist like most people in the elemental nations and even if they heard rumours, why would they believe them? Magic is new and unknown to everyone so most people won't believe it's real without proof: That's how Naruto escaped Itachi and Kisame, they had no idea about what was magic and what it could do and they severely underestimated Naruto as they could normally catch a genin or chunin without any problems. That is also why Kabuto got caught since he doesn't know the limits of magic but was cautious as he saw it at the chunin exam.**

**Also if you think that Naruto learned the ****_rasengan_**** too quickly: In canon he learned it in ****_weeks_**** when it took ****_3 months_**** for Jiraiya to learn it, even if he had to use two hands for it. There he knows the trick of shadow clones and used hundreds of them so his learning capabilities are off the chart.**

**Finally, I hope that KrapyKocaineKlub read this: Naruto's personality will be the forgiving self he is in canon, but if he has to kill to protect his friends or if the person is impossible to save from his darkness he won't hesitate to do it. It is complicated to explain but he is not naïve. Also I will explain why he wants to be Hokage.**

**All reviews are gladly accepted but please, no flames. Criticism is normal, if you don't like my story and want to say so then at least explain to me why because I may be able to grow from it. Well then, hope you enjoyed and see you next chapter ^^**


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter 14: Retrieving a comrade or ending a traitor?

**A/N: Hey guys, I'm back. And I am truly sorry for being this slow to update. I wish I could go faster but I still have to adapt to university and I have problems with it. I also had to read this part of the manga as I'm sure you know I'm dealing with Sasuke's retrieval mission, hence the title. So to answer some reviews (I'll always explain some points of my chapters in the A/N at the end): **

**First of all, to the guest asking me to keep Kabuto alive… Sorry but he is truly dead. Kurama's chakra is corrosive to most people unless he makes it harmless (only reason it also harm Naruto on long terms is because of the seal interfering). Kabuto could regenerate his cells, and that's how he survived the ****_rasengan_**** in canon, but it got countered by the corrosive chakra. Now don't worry as I can still see him having a role later in the story, but by later I mean near (relative) end of story later. No spoilers of course but he will have a role to play (mostly because I got a good idea while reading your review ^^ ). For Sasuke… Well I can't answer here but please read the A/N at the end. Also keep in mind that I plan to write along the seven Harry Potter books so some elements will make a brief apparition only to play a role later in the story and I won't explain everything because it will take away the surprise. I made an exception with Kabuto but I will avoid it if it is too important. And frankly you will probably forget about him after a while.**

**KrapyKocaineKlub: As I promised, Naruto will explain the reasons why he still wants to be hokage. It is possible you think some of them are stupid, but Naruto is Naruto and he doesn't care if his reasons are laughed at or only makes sense to him. Besides, the world peace part in canon came from Jiraiya. Naruto learned in his life that people can be extremely cruel despite being 'good citizen' but some people can be good despite being called a 'demon' like Kurama or a 'snake whore' like Anko. And it is not ****_all_**** the villagers that abused him, a lot, but definitely not all (though the others still hold some fear and/or hate of him). Some villagers don't give a damn about Naruto and mind their own business and a few doesn't hate him but they don't have a shop like Teuchi and Ayame to support themselves and can't go against the ones owning the other shops if they want to buy common necessities.**

**For the other guest: You're right, I should be a bit more careful to not rush things. However, about Naruto's 'mixed' personality… Glad you noticed ^^. It was on purpose and will be pointed at by someone at one point (I already know who). I don't mind explaining it at this point: Naruto switch from serious, intelligent and calm to childish? The thing is that Naruto was ****_forced_**** to mature faster than normal to survive while watching other kids having a normal childhood, one he ****_desire_****. He has childish antics due to growing up without parents to guide him but also because he ****_wishes_**** to be a bit childish when he can to have a bit of what was denied to him. Also it is important to note that he grew up alone for the most part, but not without precious people (Tenten before forced separation, Hiruzen and Anko) who cared for him when they could. Naruto is mature and collected when he needs to but is childish when he can because he wants to. By the way, Anko and Hiruzen can't replace parents while he grew up as the former took a lot of missions that could sometimes last one or two months and the latter is the leader of a village so has a lot of work. Kurama would be close but he is part of the reason Naruto is like that so he can't blame him for trying to try to catch glimpses of a normal childhood when he is the cause of his suffering. I hope I was clear (though I have doubts ^^' ). Of course he is only thirteen right now so he has time to grow up, until then you will have to see him going from childish to serious despite how weird it is.**

**Well then, now that it is done, let's start the story!**

"Dialogue"

_"Thoughts"_

'Mental dialogue'

**"Bijuu (Great beast) dialogue"**

**_"_****_Bijuu thoughts"_**

"**_Spells and jutsus_**"

It took Naruto two days to heal and another week for the group to reach Konoha. In this time Naruto got close to his godparents and Shizune that he started to see as another big sister figure. Unfortunately his training came to a halt because Tsunade threatened to knock him out if he strained his body after a near fatal injury, despite his accelerated healing. Her concern was both heart-warming and annoying but he couldn't protest as he knew she will do it. The most he could do was send some simple spells along the way, teaching the little he knew about magic to his godparents. But, as the group decided to stay at an inn near Konoha before the three oldest of the group had to deal with the politics inherent to the Hokage's position, Naruto went in the nearby forest to test something that bothered him for a while now: his wand's abilities. He knew, thanks to Olivander, that wands chose their owners but his wand was undoubtedly strange. The materials of his wand, the killing stone and the wood of the tree of life, seemed to give it special properties. With Kabuto he saw the stone's effect of sucking one's life away, with the tree of life leaving them at death's door instead of outright killing them. However Naruto thought about his wand and theorised it couldn't be its only ability. This feeling was reinforced by the fact Naruto _felt_ the chakra the wand sucked out of Kabuto in it, but it turned completely neutral, as if it waited for him to use it as he saw fit. Now Naruto had several ways he thought he could use this, be it as a power source for empowering his spells, if Kurama's theory about chakra empowering spells worked, or to recharge his reserves if he ever comes low but that was just proof his wand had other secrets in his eyes. One of the craziest theories he had was that if the wand can drain life away, maybe it can create it. This was why he was in the forest in the morning, with a book on transfiguration he borrowed from Hogwarts' library and Amaterasu on his shoulder in case anything went wrong and he was too tired to properly defend himself. The chapter of the book he read was about how to create a cat from a thick tree branch, and he read it several times until he knew it by heart as he remembered professor McGonagall warning them about the importance of theory in magic, especially in transfiguration where missing a spell can have dangerous consequences. He spent three hours trying to change the wood into a cat but it wouldn't bulge, much less change.

"What the hell? Why can't I make the slightest change in it?" Naruto asked loudly, frustration evident in his voice. "I know it is supposed to be advanced stuff but I read all I needed to understand what I'm doing… Did I pick the one branch in the world that is immune to magic or what?"

'Calm down master, you will never succeed if you don't_' Amaterasu was interrupted by Naruto as he angrily used the spell in succession, becoming more frustrated at each failure.

"Why. Wont. You. Change? I don't care if you become a cat, a bird or even a fly anymore, just change into a living being already!" He shouted, and finally he felt his wand doing something before the branch he targeted changed in a small swirl that brought up dust and leaves around. Naruto waited with bated breath for the result of his transfiguration, willing to accept anything that came out of his spell. When the dust settled down he expected anything, be it cat, bird or a weird mix between animals or even an animated wood sculpture. He wasn't expecting a little girl 4.26 feet tall standing in the place of the branch. She had long black hair and bright black eyes that looked at him in wonder. She wore a one piece white dress with a white ribbon tied around her waist. They stared at each over for a few seconds before the small girl broke the silence.

"My name is Yui, what is yours creator?" She asked in a cute voice as Naruto's jaw nearly dropped.

_"__Creator? I really did that? I really created a living being!"_ Naruto didn't know if he wanted to be happy he did something that shouldn't be possible or be afraid of his wand's power. He still smiled at the small girl in front of him though.

"My name is Naruto, nice to meet you Yui." He cheerfully said.

"Nau-to?" She tried to spell his name slowly. Naruto gently shook his head.

"No, Naruto. Na-ru-to."

"Na-u-to?" She tried again while slightly tilting her head on the side.

"I suppose it's not the simplest name out there. You can call me however you like." Yui thought about it for a few seconds.

"Papa?" She asked shyly.

"Me?" He asked dumfounded, she nodded slightly, obviously afraid of how he might answer.

'Well… You did create her master, so technically she is a bit like your daughter…' Amaterasu said slowly, unsure about her own answer.

**"****Listen brat, ****_you_**** created her, which makes her your daughter in my book so take responsibility. Plus you always wanted a large family so just take it as the first step towards that."** Kurama intervened, making Naruto's eyes widen to inhuman proportions.

'But I'm too young for having a daughter, I'm only thirteen!'

**"****And I am a being of chakra. In my eyes the one who created me and my siblings is my father so I won't allow you to run away from your responsibilities. Plus, didn't you say you would deal with any outcome from this experiment?"** The blond wizard sighed under the confused and hopeful eyes of the smaller girl. This finished tearing up his panic away, momentarily at least.

"Yes Yui, I am your father"

"Papa!" She exclaimed joyfully as she tackled Naruto in a hug, that he awkwardly returned. After a few seconds he reluctantly broke the hug with his unexpected daughter and crouched to be at eye level with her.

"Now then Yui, do you know what you are?" She nodded excitedly.

"I'm a spirit that you gave life from wood!"

"A spirit?"

"Yes, I can have a physical form like now or take a spiritual form which only you and those that I allow to can see." She explained as she briefly became semi-transparent before becoming, by lack of better word, solid.

"How do you know all that?"

"No idea, I just know."

'So… It's instinctual knowledge?' Amaterasu wondered.

**"****Seems like it… maybe it's because she was created by magic?"**

"Oh, and depending on the amount of magic you put into me I can be stronger and have all sorts of abilities. Since you put the bare minimum in me right now I can just change between a physical or spiritual body." That got Naruto curious.

"What type of abilities can you have, Yui-chan?"

"Because I'm a spirit I would be able to fly and since I'm created from wood I could control wood. But you have to constantly feed me energy to maintain me here and the amount depend on how powerful I am." She exclaimed with a bright smile that forbid Naruto to lose the one on his face.

"That is impressive." He stated and Yui's smile widened even further, a feat Naruto thought would be impossible. Now he just has one last thing to ask.

"How long will you be able to stay right now?" With how happy she was now there was no way he was going to ask how to send her back. Not that he wanted her to go away in the first place, as disturbing having a daughter at his age was it's his responsibility to take care of her now. It helped he found her adorable and that he felt a sort of connection between them.

"No idea!" She exclaimed in the same cheerful tone she had for a while.

"Huh?" Naruto brilliantly asked, making Yui giggle.

"I don't know everything papa, but since you put the minimum power needed I'm sure I can stay a long time." The blond gave her a nod before extending his hand.

"Let's go, Yui." He said with a gentle smile. She didn't hesitate to take his hand as they made their way toward the inn Naruto's group stayed at. When he saw Tsunade waiting for him outside the entrance he became nervous.

"So?" She began. "What were you doing alone in the forest this early in the morning? I hope you didn't train before I authorised you or there will be hell to pay brat." She stated as a dark aura seemed to come out of her, making Naruto sweat in fear. However before he could answer Yui stood protectively in front of him.

"Don't be mean to papa!" She exclaimed angrily. There was a long silence before Tsunade stared at Naruto with a blank face.

"Explain. Now."

"Um… Well I was in the forest to test something, not a jutsu, I just wanted to see if what I thought my wand could do was possible. So when I tried to transfigure a piece of wood into a living being… She appeared." He explained nervously.

"And the 'papa' part?"

"Papa gave me life so he is my papa." Yui stated firmly with a small scowl. Tsunade and the young girl stared at each other for a moment before Tsunade sighed.

"It's too early in the morning and I'm too sober to deal with this kind of sh_thing." She quickly corrected herself when she saw the glare Naruto sent her way. After having a similar conversation, with Naruto putting in in more details this time, with Jiraiya and Shizune the group marched towards Konoha with their newest addition.

It was dusk when the two gate guards, Izumo and Kotetsu, saw the group that came back with wide eyes. They knew that Jiraiya and Naruto had a mission to try to bring Tsunade back but they honestly didn't think they would succeed. They were also confused by the child that Naruto gave a piggyback ride to, they knew about the slug sannin's assistant Shizune but they never heard of her taking care of a child.

"Welcome back Jiraiya-sama. It is good to have you in our village again Tsunade-sama." Izumo said, to which the blond woman nodded absently, lost in her memories.

"Hey there Naruto, glad to see your mission went well this time. By the way… Who's this child?" Kotetsu asked the chunin of the group.

"Well…"

"Yui is papa's daughter!" Yui exclaimed proudly as she hugged Naruto tighter. Silence, then the two guards let out a cry of shock.

"Long story. Don't ask." Naruto stated as the group separated, the young blond to his apartment while the two sannin and Shizune went to the Hokage manor. When they arrived at the manor, the two elders Homura Mitokado and Koharu Utatane were quick to greet their new Hokage and prepare for the announcement ceremony. This meant a full council. The two sides of the council were there: The shinobi side consisting of the various clan heads, and the civilian side consisting of the Hokage's direct advisors and influent citizens, be it merchant or the representative of Konoha's farmers. It was common sense that hidden villages to have means to produce their own food to not be entirely dependent of outside business. Tsunade sat at the Hokage's place at the centre of the end of the room, the seat being higher than the councilmen slightly raised seats on either sides of the room, the place in the middle used when someone is judged so that the council looks slightly more intimidating. An old trick, but one that generally works. The shinobi council members were at the Hokage's right and the civilian side at the left. The room was silent as Tsunade stared at each members of the council.

"I'll get straight to the point: I've been chosen as the fifth Hokage and I accepted. As such I'll use the privilege that allows me to change the law as I see fit for the first time I take this seat, in the limit of the possible of course." The shinobi council stayed calm while the civilian side was excited, thinking that they might even gain more power depending of the situation. "While I made my way back at the village I got to see the laws and I noticed that the civilian council gained more power and could now have an active say in matters concerning our shinobi force. Therefore I declare that this situation… is over. The civilian council will take back its original role that my grandfather gave to it and that is to be an advisory council. Civilians have no say in matters concerning our shinobi forces because they don't have enough knowledge about our ways and because of previous actions that put our village at risk." This caused an uproar from the civilians while the shinobi side had a small smile on their face.

"What have we done wrong?" Asked angrily a fat merchant, Tsunade smirked before she looked at him straight into his eyes.

"I'm glad you asked. Let's start about how you gained that much power. The night of the kyubi attack, while all our forces were fighting it to protect our village, which cost the life of the fourth Hokage, you repaid our sacrifice by using the short period where the seat was empty to alter the law to give you this power. Secondly: you cut the money sent to the ninja academy to put it in the civilian one. This had the effect of giving us weaker gennin who has nearly everything to learn from their jonin sensei. I mean seriously, they didn't learn about the tree climbing exercise before being in a team. Thirdly: The head of the ninja academy, a civilian born shinobi, decided to erase any record of the Uzumaki clan from the history lessons." There was a tense silence in the room. Tsunade was the granddaughter of the first Hokage, Hashirama Senju, and Mito Uzumaki, that made her a quarter Uzumaki, a quarter of a clan that had their own village and was the greatest ally of Konohagakure and is still honoured by their spiral mark on the flak jackets of Konoha's shinobi force. She suddenly punched the table, cracking it slightly, an impressive feat considering the strengthening seals on it. "This is unacceptable!" She shouted. "You spit on our greatest allies' memory, not to mention the abuse one of its last member had to endure!" This caused another round of protest from the civilian side.

"That _thing_ is not an Uzumaki! It is merely a beast that puts us all in danger simply by being alive!" One of them shouted, only for the civilians to be silenced by a wave of killing intent coming from the new hokage.

"You should be careful about what to say from now on as _Naruto_ is my godson. I verified myself his Uzumaki heritage, or are you saying you know more about the medical art than me?" No one dared to speak, knowing that despite being known for drinking too much her medical skills stayed legendary even now.

"No one would dare refute your skills in the art Tsunade-sama." Shimura Danzo, a man known for wanting the seat of Hokage and wearing a white shirt covered by a dark robe that reached his feet and covered his right arm. Bandages covered his right eye, with dark hair coming out on top and near his left arm was the cane he used to walk. Tsunade knew that underestimating this old man was begging to be beaten up so she was slightly surprised he defended her skills, though nothing showed on her face. "But the boy still could present a danger to others. I've seen him and he is a loose cannon whose loyalty might not lay entirely in Konoha. I believe that the third Hokage made a mistake into allowing him to go learn those wizards' ways. What if he abandoned Konoha for them? The village will lose a great potential weapon while our enemy will gain it. And we all know from history what a jinchuriki can do if it is our enemy." The civilians immediately nodded in agreement while some of the shinobi council thought it over. Tsunade's eyebrow twitched: this was why she hated politics, too much trouble for what it was worth in her opinion.

"While I can see your point, there are a few things that you are forgetting." She started, gaining the attention of Danzo. "Firstly I would like to answer to the civilian who thinks Naruto is a danger by being alive if that is all right with you?" Seeing the advisor nod she turned to said civilian. "In case you didn't understand, didn't listen to or forgot, Naruto has the kyubi _sealed_ inside of him. In other words he is its jailor, our line of defence against it if you will. If he dies, the kyubi will just reform some years later. A line of defence that I heard you put in danger more often than not." She coldly stated, making the civilian pale as they nether considered that in their hatred of the kyubi. "Also, he is a loose cannon? His loyalty in Konoha is not set in stone? I can't blame him for that with how this village treated him, I'm actually surprised he even bothered coming back here in the first place. Not to mention he played a crucial role in defending Konoha in the recent invasion by taking out their jinchuriki. And you should rest easy: he doesn't plan to betray the village despite having all the reasons to. But we got of track so let's get back to why I called you here…"

It took Tsunade three hours to end the meeting as the civilians and the current advisors tried to undermine each of her decisions, but she managed to bring them back to their place. This feat, however, made her thirsty and tired so she made her way to her godson's apartment to bothe_keep him company for a bit and see how he adapts with his daughter, as weird as this sounded to her. It was night when she arrived in front of his apartment and knocked on the door. She wasn't really surprised to see a redhead with glasses opening the door, but she was moderately surprised about the slightly bored look she sported. Not the typical reaction you have when a legendary ninja is at your doorstep, then again the girl lived with the most unpredictable ninja she met so it wasn't that unexpected. No words were exchanged as Karin moved out of the way, allowing Tsunade entry but making a sign to keep quiet. Intrigued, she silently made her way into the dining room only to find Naruto passed out on the table, a finished bowl of ramen next to him. On the chair at his right was Yui who read a book about magical creatures with a bright smile and swinging her legs energetically, no doubt the reason of his exhaustion.

"Let me guess." Tsunade said softly. "He gave her a tour of the village?" She received a nod.

"Yes, and scared all of his friends with his daughter… me included, and I live with this crazy idiot." Karin complained, but Tsunade was able to pick something up and had a sly grin.

"Oh, you wouldn't happen to have a small crush on our resident knucklehead, do you?" The blush and stuttering was immediate and the sannin had to reign in her laugh, which left her when Karin gained a sad look.

"I admit I have a small crush on him, but it will pass. And I know he doesn't feel that way since we talked about it. It is mostly because he saved my life in the forest of death, something nobody ever did without ulterior motives."

"Sorry, I didn't mean to touch a sensible cord." Karin shook her head.

"It isn't a problem, as I said it will pass in time. Probably while he is away to this wizard school or something." An awkward silence appeared after this until Karin broke it. "And you lady Tsunade, what made you come back?" The older blond smiled.

"A bet I was glad to lose in the end." The silence came back as awkward as ever, only interrupted by Yui humming happily and the sound of flicking pages. Some time passed before Naruto stirred up from his sleep. He lazily looked at the occupants of the table and noted the awkward atmosphere around Karin and Tsunade immediately.

"How long did you two stay like that?"

"A quarter of an hour." Yui answered with her usual cheerfulness while her eyes never left the book. Naruto snorted as he tried, and failed, to conceal his amusement.

"Oh just shut up and take care of your daughter or something." Tsunade growled, making him chuckle as he turned toward Yui as the two kunoichi rolled their eyes.

So, why are you here Baa-chan? Not that I complain about you visiting me or anything but since you just got out of a council meeting…" He left the words pending as Yui decided to sit on his lap to continue reading. Tsunade sighed.

"I came here to relax after dealing with what I'm sure will be the bane of my existence: politics. It is hell to deal with some of those bastards, and don't even get me started on those old coots. And you said you _wanted_ this job? Please tell me why you would subject yourself to such torture before I diagnose you as a mentally unstable." The outburst made Naruto laugh before he slowly gained a serious expression.

"I have several reasons to be Hokage really. The first one would be because I promised Sarutobi-jiji I'll take the hat from him one day. I may not be able to take it _from him_ anymore but I'll be damned if I don't keep this promise." He started, making the others look at him sadly, even Yui put her book down and hugged him. Naruto gained a small smile as he absently stroked her head. "The second is more selfish and linked to how I was treated in the village. Most sees me as a monster but I decided to ignore them and do my very best to make them see me as myself and someone they could look up to when they need to be protected. Defy my _fate_ as some would say. The third reason is a bit more political and also linked to how I was treated, or rather how most jinchuriki were treated." Tsunade raised an eyebrow at that.

"You didn't strike me as a political type of man, but I see what you mean. By being Hokage you will prove that you, despite being a mostly feared jinchuriki, are as dependable and trustworthy than anyone else and have more possibilities of bettering the life of future jinchuriki." He nodded.

"And finally: That I want to or not, I am the odd link between the magical and shinobi world. I study at their school while being a shinobi, which mean I am in a weird position because of my job and their way of life. Add to that the fact I'm protected by every hidden villages and magical governments and my life will be a headache as I will be pressured into being the official mediator between all of them. I am doomed to have dealings with politicians one way or another." He finished dramatically with tears of despair running down his face.

"I feel for you brat, I feel for you…" The older blond said as she pat his back. "But go to sleep before you fall dead, you look like a zombie." And true to her words Naruto sported huge dark rings under his eyes so he merely nodded tiredly before going to his room, Yui following him. When he entered his room he immediately crashed on his bed, rolling lazily under the covers and was ready to sleep before he noticed Yui staring at him as she fidgeted a bit.

"What's the matter Yui?" He asked as he stifled a yawn.

"Can I sleep with you tonight, papa?" Naruto stayed silent and simply moved and lifted his cover which made Yui jump in and snuggle against him. "I love you, papa." She mumbled as she drifted off to sleep but still managed to hear Naruto answer.

"I love you too, my daughter." Her smile couldn't be any bigger.

One week passed, and thankfully for Naruto nothing life threatening happened yet, which was surprising him in a good way with all that happened recently. He managed to spend more time with his precious people and his daughter as he still had a ban on training from Tsunade, which now extended to magic too. However as the week passed Naruto became more exhausted even when his body was fine and rested. It was discovered to be the effect that a shortage of magic does to a wizard and the cause was that Yui took the energy she needed to appear. In this time Naruto showed Yui around the village and enjoyed the look of shock his friends had, even Shino had his eyes widen and in Aburane language this means you surprised them like never before. When the week ended though, so did Yui's time and as she was dispelled Naruto fell unconscious as his magic was dried out and he woke up surprisingly with the knowledge of how to dispel his spirit. The next day Naruto was eating lunch at Ichiraku as he wondered how his next school year will be now that he will be announced as a ninja.

_"__No doubt a lot will avoid me like a deadly disease while rumours will run wild, probably painting me as a bloodthirsty, unfeeling killer or maybe a barbarian incapable of civilised talk? At least that will happen for the first years for sure, the older students have a good chance to do this too… In fact apart from those that know me I'm pretty sure there will be distrust towards me. Oh, joy…"_ As he finished his seventh bowl of ramen an ANBU wearing a monkey mask appeared.

"Chunin Uzumaki, the Hokage request your presence immediately." He stated in a voice that made it clear it was serious so Naruto got up and went next to the ANBU who shunshined them inside the office. He quickly noticed that Shikamaru, the only other person promoted in the chunin exam, was here and the sombre mood of his godmother.

"What's the problem?" He asked in what he dubbed his 'professional' voice.

"Your teammate Sasuke was taken out of the village by the four sound ninjas that made the barrier trapping the previous hokage. From your other teammate's report it seems he went with them deliberately. As it is possible the cursed mark he received influenced him more than we thought your mission is to rescue him from the sound and bring him back." Naruto sighed.

"And if he doesn't want to go back? No offence but he doesn't strike me as the type who would refuse power when it is offered to him, no matter who gives it to him or how so he will probably resist."

"Bringing him back is the priority, but if he really betrayed the village and it is too dangerous to capture him then you are to go for the kill. Do _not_ risk your life to bring a traitor back alive if it seems too dangerous, am I clear?" Naruto simply nodded. "Good, this mission will be led by Shikamaru Nara. Unfortunately we don't have any other chunin or jonin available to deploy as we are still dealing with the aftermath of the invasion so you will have to gather your own team of genin as fast as possible. Dismissed!" With that the two fresh chunin rushed out of the Hokage's manor.

"How troublesome, we should go our separate ways to find more people to join us." Shikamaru stated before going toward the Akimichi compound. In the end they managed to bring Choji, Kiba, Neji and Lee, who was healed thanks to Dumbledore's help even if he still needed some medicine, with them as a team. They had a formation and were ready to go but got stopped by Sakura calling the blond chunin.

"What do you want? We kind of are in a hurry you know?" Although he asked, the tears Sakura let out warned him about what she was going to say.

"I-I couldn't stop Sasuke." She started, making Naruto mentally roll his eyes.

_"__Spot on. This is sadly too easy…"_ A part of him wanted to tell her to hurry up but he wasn't _that_ cruel, despite the way she treated him before.

"And I know that we never really bonded as a team before, nor were we very nice to you…"

**"****Understatement of the century."** Kurama grumbled, remembering the countless times she hit his container in his academy days.

"But please… Please bring Sasuke back. I'll do anyth_"

"Ok, stop right there. First of all: our mission is to bring him back or, if he really betrayed the village capture him if possible." Sakura looked up with a smile but it faltered when she saw the stern look on Naruto's face.

"If possible? You don't mean…"

"Yes, if he betrayed us and actively tries to kill us I might be forced to kill him to save my, or my teammates', life. I might not like him but he still is a skilled genin while the best we have are two fresh chunin." Most of the team stared at him in disbelief for a moment. "What? You thought I was going to accept with a bright smile and get beaten up if he tries to kill me because I try to capture him? And this because I once had a crush on her?" More staring. He scoffed. "Oh just let's go already, we lost enough time as it is." And that is how the Sasuke retrieval mission started. Leaving behind a sad Kunoichi wondering where the annoyingly optimist idiot she knew at the academy went. And a feeling of dread crept up when she thought of this mission.

The mission did not go well, not at all. Though Naruto kind of expected this as they were a ragtag team with only two new chunins and genins. Not only that but Lee wasn't completely healed yet and shouldn't normally strain his body too much while Naruto himself still felt slightly tired from his recent magical exhaustion. So it wasn't really surprising they had to leave someone behind to take care of one of the sound four while the group advanced. The first to stay behind was Choji who was angry at the big sound ninja, whose name was Jirobo if he remembered correctly, for insulting his best friend Shikamaru. Then they had to leave Neji as he was the only one able to properly counter the spider-like abilities of the six-armed shinobi. And after that they finally managed to take back Sasuke, or rather the round coffin he was in, and were ready to go back to the village but Akamaru got stuck after he placed a paper bomb. This forced Kiba to save him, the explosion pushing him and another of the sound four over the edge of a cliff. They were ready to face the last member of the enemies, a red haired girl named Tayuya when another sound ninja appeared and took back the coffin before going back to Orochimaru, though not before telling the girl the only reason he didn't kill her was because she still had some use here. This got Naruto wonder why she still worked for Orochimaru if he thinks of them as pawns but supposed the cursed seal had some kill switch in case they rebelled. Shikamaru stayed to take care of her as Lee and he rushed after the white haired sound ninja. They found him waiting in an open field, which is quite unusual for a ninja to do. After being informed by their opponent about _why_ they needed Sasuke, as a vessel for Orochimaru as he apparently found a way to switch bodies, the coffin opened. Naruto tried to call Sasuke back to the village but he just cackled madly and ran away and thanks to Lee the blond shinobi could go after him. Naruto caught up to him at the valley of the end, which is basically a huge chunk of earth teared apart in the confrontation between two legendary ninja and the founders of Konoha. The valley sported two giant statues of them with a waterfall on the first Hokage's right and served to mark the border between the land of fire and sound. The statue on the land of fire side, and where Naruto was standing, was that of the first hokage Hashirama Senju and in front, where Sasuke was standing, was the statue of Madara Uchiha, a man who betrayed the village. Naruto and Sasuke stared at each other silently but it didn't last as the Uchiha laughed madly.

"What's so funny?" Naruto asked, confused about his old teammate outburst.

"That I, the elite, finally got to fight you, the loser, and put you back in your place!"

"You're still sore about me refusing to fight you at the hospital two days ago? Man, I was dead tired. I doubt it will be satisfying for you to win against an opponent who could barely fight back."

"Excuses of a loser! You were just afraid to fight me and lose like the waste of space you are!" Sasuke exclaimed dramatically.

"You do realise I defeated Gaara, right? You know, the guy with the sand that beat you?"

"Shut up! You are nothing in front of me, an elite Uchiha, and should bow before me!"

'And we lost him. He betrayed the village and became insane. Any ideas to bring him back at least to sanity?' Naruto asked Kurama and Amaterasu.

**"****Sadly no. And you'd better be careful as whatever happened to him when he was put in the coffin, it made his cursed mark stronger."**

'And phoenixes don't have the power to cure insanity.'

_"__Great, so we have a doped confirmed missing-nin that will try his best to kill me and I don't think I'll be able to use any spells for the moment. Sometimes I hate my life."_ Both opponents charged at each other on the verge of the waterfall, both doing the same set of seals.

"**Katon: Great fire ball jutsu**!" Two big balls of fire collided in the air and exploded. The black haired shinobi charged through the leftover flames faster than he should be able too, surprising Naruto who barely dodged the five kunais sent towards vital parts of his body. He may dislike the Uchiha but he is the first to recognise his skills. As such he was able to block the following punch, the force accumulated by Sasuke's speed making him slide back a few feet. Naruto caught the following kick and threw his opponent in the air before creating a clone to give him a jumping boost. He tried to punch Sasuke put it was blocked by a cross guard. Naruto spun around to kick the mad shinobi but his opponent turned around to block the strike again. When they touched the water again Naruto threw several kunai to create some distance.

"What's the matter Naruto? Is your chunin rank you are so proud of showing around really is that pathetic? Or do you now realise that you should never had access to this rank and stayed the pitiful excuse of a genin you were?" Sasuke asked, his whole body language in tune with his now insane mind. Naruto took a deep breath before releasing a long sigh.

"No, I just find it sad that you turned out like that. I never really liked you, not since you were nearly worshipped after the tragic fate of your clan, but I can't blame you for that. Hell, I can't even be angry at you for betraying the village as you became insane. But I'll make myself clear…" He started before his eyes gained a steely quality. "I never once considered myself inferior to you. I was weaker than you in taijutsu, ninjutsu and other aspect of our job, but I was always the stronger of the two when our will was concerned. And this is confirmed today as I caught up the gap that once separated us and you are the one who became insane when I had far more reasons than you to fall. I strive to better myself as a ninja no matter how hard the path, you fell and seeked the easy way."

"Shut up!" The Uchiha roared as he charged recklessly while his cursed seal covered him entirely, doubling his speed and allowing him to send an unprepared Naruto flying into a rock. As the blond rose from the now destroyed rock he created a hundred clones to distract his now super-powered opponent.

_"__That hurt."_

**"****I told you to be careful of his cursed seal, but did you? No, you just let him surprise you when he activated him after you taunted him. How stupid can you get?"**

'If you don't mind I would prefer you keep the criticism for _after_ the fight and come up with ideas instead.' Naruto growled.

'Maybe using a **_double spiral_** on him will work?' Amaterasu supplied but Naruto shook his head.

'That will drain me and wound my arm too much so if he dodges I'll be practically done for.' He answered as he gained the memory of his clones that were slaughtered by the Uchiha as he cackled madly. The now missing-nin had no logical pattern in his attacks and forsake some blocks to become more aggressive, weakening his taijutsu style but gaining the advantage of unpredictability. Naruto then gained an idea: Sasuke being convinced he is stronger will stop at nothing to show his superiority over him. So he had to bring him in a mind-set where only the two of them existed to take advantage of the situation.

Sasuke never felt more satisfied as he crushed the clones of this _inferior_ dropout who dared thinking he was better than him. Sure the clones where far more than what normal people should be able to produce, even more so to have them worth something in a fight, and sure they got a few hits in but only because he didn't care about the strikes of a weakling like him. The so-called attacks that connected? They didn't even hurt, he felt like a giant swatting annoying insects. So, as he finished the last pathetic clone of the dope he grinned like never before when he heard him calling him out in anger with a swirling sphere of chakra in his right hand. In response he charged a **_Chidori_** and felt the technique stronger than ever before. With this the blond idiot was over, with this he will defeat Itachi and revenge will be his. Yet when the two techniques connected the ball of chakra remained strong against his lightning spear. He didn't understand, no, _couldn't_ understand. How could this idiot, once so weak and pitiful, stand strong in front of his overwhelming strength? How could he stay so calm when the one that will kill him is right in front of him? His calmness is indeed strange, is it possible that he…

Sasuke's thoughts got interrupted when he felt something cold pass through his neck. He looked down and saw the bloodied tip of what he guessed was a kunai before the weapon became visible. His grip on his technique slipped and the chakra orb went straight into his stomach, turning his insides into bloodied pulp before sending him at the other side of the river, crashing into rock as his opponent once did. He could see darkness creeping into his sight as death slowly claimed him. He saw the single, drenched clone that ran the kunai in his neck when he was probably concealed underwater.

Naruto stared at his dying enemy before he dispelled his clone, glad that he learned the **_Toton _**jutsu, an invisibility jutsu that his godfather created. It was an anticlimactic end for this battle, but then again most ends of fights are. In the end a concealed knife could be the most efficient way to kill someone rather than flashy techniques. But then again some people just refuse to die simply, as the mad shinobi proved as he released a roar while his body changed due to his cursed seal. His skin turned dark-grey like his eyes and his hair grew and turned dark blue. With a sickening noise two big webbed-claw-shaped wings grew from his back at the same time a star shaped mark appeared across the bridge of his nose. Naruto felt the corrupted chakra rolling off of Sasuke as he flapped his wings and hovered over the ground. The blond jinchuriki would have been staring blankly at the scene if he wasn't in the fight.

'Kurama give me a tail's worth of chakra!' He hastily demanded his tenant. The answer came in the form of Kurama's red chakra forming a cloak in the vague shape of a fox around Naruto. The bubbling chakra damaging Naruto at the same speed in which he regenerated, causing him intense pain. However he didn't have the time to worry about that as he dodged the leg Sasuke planned to slam in him from above. The crazed traitor charged after him, landing blow after blow in total disregard of his defence. It didn't matter as he was going to die. The only thing in his mind was killing his opponent. Naruto was forced to defend himself, never finding an opening to counterattack nor having any time to rest. Sasuke was always faster than him when they didn't use chakra, this speed seemed to have transferred to his current form. In comparison Naruto was stronger and sturdier than him, and with the cloak acting independently his defence was solid. Naruto tried to create clones but Sasuke was wary of them now and destroyed them immediately. The rain of blows continued for several long seconds before the flow of the battle suddenly turned. A punch found a hole in the young chunin's defence and he was sent flying down the waterfall. Amaterasu rushed toward her master and caught him, causing the red chakra to harm her too. As they floated in the air they turned and saw what changed in the battle.

_"__Oh fuck."_ Was Naruto's only comment on the mature **_sharingan_** the traitor had, the three black tomoe staring straight at the jinchuriki. The reason why this was bad was that those eyes are well known by Naruto, whose previous jonin-sensei Hatake Kakashi had one transplanted, and its ability spelled trouble. Sasuke was now able to predict his movements by the slightest twitch of his muscles and able to copy any jutsu he use in front of them so long as he use hand-signs, limiting his options of attacks. The crazed genin charged yet again but this time Naruto was prepared. He let Sasuke get closer before using **_Hari jizo_**, making his hair grow and cover him as it became as hard as steel and shaped like needle. Sasuke's next punch impaled itself on the needle-like hair but he didn't care for the wound as he poured all the strength and momentum in it. Naruto and Amaterasu were blasted away from the strength of the blow and Naruto used this by sending a barrage of his weaponized hair to Sasuke while Amaterasu regained control of their flight. The sheer amount of projectiles made it impossible for the grey skinned ninja to block it all so he tried to dodge but his right leg got caught in them. If Sasuke didn't lose his sanity he would have noted how bad this counterattack really was. He would have noted that the red chakra was eating away at his flesh and disturbing the flow of chakra in these areas. But the pain he should have felt from the corrosive chakra was overshadowed by the feeling of invincibility the cursed seal gave him in this form.

Naruto knew he had to finish this soon: the pain inflicted by Kurama's chakra was becoming difficult to ignore and he couldn't imagine what it must feel like for Amaterasu as she fly him around. So for once since Sasuke transformed, he was the one to charge. Fist met fist as the two shinobis flew around the valley, blow after blow they pushed each other back in a deadly dance. Both weakening rapidly, one because of intense pain, the other because death was ready to claim him. Red chakra raged around as the abomination that Sasuke became dodged or sent jutsus against it. A blow at Sasuke's face. One at Naruto's stomach. A blocked strike. Another connected. It continued like that for two minutes until they shoved themselves away one last time.

"Let's end it Sasuke!" Naruto finally exclaimed, now fully knowing that the traitor would not avoid a direct confrontation to prove his strength. Blue and red chakra spiralling wildly in opposite directions on Naruto's right arm. The crazed shinobi let out a croaky laugh, probably the only thing he could do when a kunai went through his throat. He charged a new **_Chidori_** but the corrupted chakra made it of dark lightning and the sound reminiscent of chirping birds now seemed like a thousand flapping wings.

**"****Change the spirals affinity to wind."** Kurama advised his friend who did as told just before the two technique clashed. Sasuke saw two things too late: one, the corrosive chakra on his wounded hand weakened the flow of his chakra and with that weakened his technique. The second thing he noticed was the feeling of impending death that exuded from Naruto's technique.

"**_Double spiral: Raging tornado_**!" The technique collided with the **_Chidori_** and cut the lightning attack to pieces as the two opposite spirals of wind shredded everything into pieces in a huge vortex. Sasuke's body was cut so many times that what was left of his body couldn't be recognised anymore. As he saw the bloodied remains of his opponent land on the ground far from where they fought, he let go of his **_one tail cloak_** and turned to look at the price he paid for this technique. His arm was cut so many times by smaller blade of winds, as it was the starting point of the vortex, it was barely recognisable but thankfully still in one piece. As always when he was forced to use his **_double spiral_** and it's variant he felt drained of energy, too tired and stubborn to scream his pain to the world, no matter how tempting it was. Amaterasu was going to bring him back toward Konoha when Naruto pointed in the direction the corpse of his opponent flew away.

"I still have something to do." He stated. Amaterasu and Kurama knew what he was referring too and stayed silent as Naruto disliked what he was going to do. Many things could be discovered from the bodies of dead ninjas, no matter how disfigured they were. Just finding the way one died could reveal a new jutsu to an expert, and that wasn't a risk Naruto was ready to take. When Amaterasu put him down in front of what could only be described as a pile of flesh, Naruto felt sick. He has seen death of others before, that was a given in their profession, and he knew sometimes he would have to kill just like he have done twice now. But despite what people told him, he doubted it would get any easier. Sure the act itself would be perfected in time, but the guilt he felt for each life he took he didn't think it would go away nor did he want it to go away: It was proof he wasn't a monster. No, as he watched the body he just put aflame be consumed, he took out a new black leathered book and opened it at the first page where only a single name was on it followed by a brief description: Kabuto, spy of Otogakure and right-hand man of Orochimaru, killed to protect Tsunade. It was an idea given to him by Jiraiya to help cope with the guilt when he killed people. A book of death, accounting each of his kills and why he did it. And now a second name will stain the blank page with ink as he stained the ground with his blood. He gave the dead a minute of silence out of respect. As he told him, he never truly hated Sasuke Uchiha. Disliked how everyone treated him after his clan's massacre? How he pushed everyone away to only focus on vengeance? How years of being praised and spoiled by most civilians made him an arrogant bastard? Yes, yes and yes. He couldn't blame everything on him, but he could clearly affirm that he was mentally stronger than the late Uchiha, as despite years of abuse he was still here and still fought to protect them and prove that jinchurikis are not demons. Now though he had to return home, and he really hoped he will find all the friends he went on this mission with alive. He trusted them completely, but with how the mission ended he wasn't entirely optimistic about this.

**A/N: Chapter finally finished! I am so sorry for the time it takes me to update my stories. I've been thinking about this issue and there are several reasons for that: firstly is that I have read too many Naruto fanfictions so the Naruto universe parts inspire me less as I had read them so many times other. This leads partly to the second problem: I seriously lack confidence in myself. And one of my fears is that I will write something too similar to another story or uninteresting because overly done. The third 'problem' is that I have a lot of ideas for other stories which divert some of my attention. The last problem is my lack of motivation due to me being more or less depressed with my life for the moment. Those accumulated problems leads to slow development of my stories which I am again sorry for.**

**Now that this rant is over, I will explain points that I think might be questioned, which is now a usual thing:**

**What the hell is this thing with Yui? Well as explained in the chapter, it is an ability of Naruto's wand. Wand made from the killing stone and the ****_tree of life_**** so yes he can create some new life. This ability is only as its presentation stage in this chapter and will be used later in and out of battle situations. I will remind you that magic is far from fully understood, even more so when you see that the magical community stayed several centuries behind technologically and socially wise (with few exception in certain cases). And we follow Naruto, so I will tell of a spell or technique what he knows about it, which is sometimes limited to how it looks and its effect. More will be discovered in due times my friends.**

**Where does Yui comes from? Well I'm sure those who saw the anime will recognise her. Yui is a character from ****Sword Art Online****. Now I'm not here to create a debate about if the series is good or bad. Personally I liked the idea of players trapped in a video game where the threat of death is real (which mean the first part in Aincrad). And one of my favourite character as she just grew on me for some reason. The 'papa' she calls Naruto is the same way she calls the main character in SAO (because reasons, look it up if you want to know).**

**Naruto's unnatural acceptance of Yui as his daughter when he is only thirteen years old? Oh it stills feel weird for him, but he has seen weirder. I mean after magic, moving stairs, real ghost, a troll, fighting a shadow of himself, summoning giant animals, a snake-like man and a wand that sucks the life of others than him, Naruto just learnt to accept that weird stuff happens. And also if you remembered in the first few chapters he decided that nothing was impossible with magic. Add to all that a being made entirely of chakra by somebody else, and so had something similar happen, plus Naruto's determination to take responsibility no matter what happens with his experiment and you have this unnatural acceptance. It also helps that he always wanted a big family.**

**Why did you skip all the pursuit part? Because done and redone. Nothing really changes from canon so I didn't want to write it again.**

**Amaterasu's limited role? Because she isn't really combat ready. Yes, phoenixes are strong enough to carry several full grown men but that doesn't mean she is sturdy enough to survive a fight. Imagine what a stage two cursed seal Sasuke would have done to Amaterasu if he hit her? Yup, gruesome death. She basically only have ****_one_**** technique under her feathers for god's sake, why would Naruto use fight with her when she would be more likely to hinder him as he try to protect her? Also she can revive herself, true, but I doubt death is a pleasant experience. So for the moment Amaterasu is an emergency escape route, a distraction if possible, and a way to reach the occasional flying insane Sasuke.**

**Why did Sasuke gained a mature ****_sharingan_****? He was dying and, following the curse of hatred of the Uchiha, his hate toward Naruto and his will to kill him made it appear.**

**Sasuke's death: I know not everyone would be ok with me on this one but I have my reasons. One of them is that I couldn't picture a scenario where Sasuke would win and the closest I got was by including magic exhaustion. Then again Sasuke is not weak despite how he must have looked in the chunin exams. In his match with Gaara he went in a straight line by using his ****_chidori_****, which is a stupid move if the enemy can react, especially against Gaara as he can remodel the battlefield with his abilities. In this chapter's fight however he didn't use it in the same manner, and only when Naruto baited him with a contest of strength, and that's when he was insane. His insanity in itself is a point I must defend: Would you have preferred the 'normal' Sasuke when all emotional weight between Naruto and him was destroyed in my fanfiction? It wouldn't have made any sense with how I wrote him. His insanity is born from the clan massacre and how he was treated by the civilians here. In the fight I wanted this insanity to be clear, which I hope worked like I wanted it to. Seeing as he was out of his mind he missed some signs he wouldn't have otherwise, and instead on concentrating on slaughtering the clones he would have analysed his surroundings. At the same time I wanted to use his fight to announce a cold truth: not all fights will be long brawls with a lot of flashy and destructive techniques. Sometimes his fights are going to be short and definitely not epic.**

**Naruto's way to deal with killing people? Naruto is not someone who can kill without feelings that's for sure. So this book of kills, his personal 'death note' dare I say (and I know I'll burn in hell for this one), makes sense to me. Remembering them is his way to atone for their deaths.**

**Now that all this is done, I can't thank you enough for your support, you guys (and girls) rock! Hope you enjoyed and see you next chapter ^^**


End file.
